“Pôr o Corpo a Pensar” (Making The Body Think)
Curated by Miguel Matos
Dec. 9 – 29, 2017
Opening: December 9, 7pm to 9pm
Please visit our Google Calendar for visiting hours.
Read the Fragrantica article, here
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ABOUT
The IAO is pleased to host an exhibiton curated by Miguel Matos, originally presented at Casa da Cerca Contemporary Arts Center in Almada, Portugal in February 2017.
“The invisible line of a smell that is maddening” is the motto for an interpretation of an excerpt of Pôr o Corpo a Pensar, a PhD thesis published by Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, by Maria João Ceitil.
The book’s chosen excerpt was separated and decontextualized from the rest of the work and delivered to several niche perfumers, who were asked to translate the sensations caused by the words into smell.
Some pre-existing works were additionally added, due to the fact that their character intrinsically associated with this concept, as was the case with Secrétions Magnifiques by the French perfumer Antoine Lie for the brand Etat Libre d’Orange. Other works were specifically conceived for this exhibition, such as the ones of Anatole Lebreton, Antonio Alessandria, Lucas Gracia and Antonio Gardoni, while Sven Pritzkoleit‘s submission, pre-existing but discontinued, came to life again by the artist’s choice. For the exhibition in Los Anegeles, the six existing perfumers are joined by Oliver Valverde and Fulvio Misitano – developing new scents for the LA version of the show.
These smells aim to summon a dimension of the body through what Maria João Ceitil calls the body’s most primitive and most basic. The unavoidable and concupiscent animality: the smell of the body.
Following the line of the organic and sensorial pattern, performer Ondina Pires was invited to create a sound installation, based on vocal and percussive records. The audio translation of the olfactory sensations, under different rhythms and intensities, followed an improvised, experimental and primitive structure.
The idea of the project “Pôr o Corpo a Pensar” is to establish an exhibition that intersects the realms of art, philosophy and smell. The works created by these perfumers can even be impossible to use in one of those, but they are able to evoke it. They are not perfumes, they are olfactory artworks in the sense proposed by Chandler Burr. They are smells of the body, smells of love, smells of eroticism, smells of the instinct. My intention is not only to pay tribute to the author and to her magnificent work, but also to expand its scope, working upon it, reconnecting the thread that was suddenly cut by her death.
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SCENT WORKS
Anatole Lebreton – God Pan
Antoine Lie – Secretions Magnifiques
Antonio Alessandria – Life and Death
Antonio Gardoni – O
Fulvio Misitano – Fake
Lucas Gracia – Iris Noir
Oliver Valverde – Lust of the Flesh: Attraction and Repulsion
Pissara Umavijani – Untitled
Sven Pritzkoleit – Nardus
With sound work ‘Odormance’ by Ondina Pires
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