How is olfaction related to dominant discourses and politics? Is it possible to renegotiate coexistence through scent? Olfaction is a sense usually associated with memory, preference, the visceral, the instinctive and the affective. Lately, it has been used strategically in political candidates’ campaigns, manipulating their appeal, and the context of their statements.
“rehearsing dormancy” so far, is an attempt to trace, explore, and reconsider narratives concerning the political through olfaction, pursuing a more decentralized account. By conducting post-qualitative field research in Berlin, interviewing citizens, collecting items, distilling, and combining the materials in a lab/studio, this project seeks to develop olfactory components at the intersection of the personal, the political, and the imagined. The intention is to approach scent and politics through multiplicity, shared responsibility, and agency, explore digressive narratives, and perhaps the potential for re-enchantment through scent.
The seventy-one glass ampoules correspond to seventy interviews of citizens of Berlin and one of myself. After developing the scents in the lab, I fire-sealed them by hand and let them for visitors of the exhibition to break and pour into the same glass vessel where they were gradually added one after the other and remained until the end of the exhibition.
The project was funded by Stiftung Berliner Leben.
part of “rehearsing dormancy” so far, 2022, participatory installation views, dimensions variable olfactory components in 71 fire-sealed glass ampoules, wool braid, reclaimed lab glass, reclaimed glass tubes, poems printed on reclaimed PVC foil, found slides printed on reclaimed PVC foil, scented wool, pillow
special thanks to Theo Echter for generously providing equipment and thorough advice
photographic documentation of laboratory process by bmin0r