
The highlight on Saturday was Sissel Tolaas’ lecture. She presented her installation The FEAR of SMELL – the SMELL of FEAR at Fragranze. Tolaas had simulated in her lab sweat produced by men suffering from anxiety disorder. This smell dominated the area around her stand and contradicted the perfumes that were presented at the fair.
In her lecture the Norwegian scientist talked about smells being invisible information and the basis of all communication. She emphasized that we have to get rid of the idea what smells “good“ or “bad“. Instead we should become curious what odor communicates. In her Academy of Smell she trains people to recognize, accept and define the smell of places, things, people and emotions. She organizes a lot of workshops with children, because they have less preconceptions and learn to train their noses quickly.
How we judge smells is not genetically determined, but a culturally determined preference. Especially in the U.S. body odor is a no-no. No wonders that perfume lines like Clean are so successful.
Sissel Tolaas presented a number of projects she had realized around the globe and I was really impressed. For example she had recreated the smell of patina of coins and presented a wall that you could touch and feel “rich“.
The funniest thing was the odor analysis of a Prada coat from 1994. It still contained all kinds of smells in its fabric – from Chanel N° 5 to the flavor of an Asian restaurant.
I spent some time at the stand of Sissel Tolaas watching how visitors reacted who didn’t know at first that they were smelling male sweat. Nobody seemed to be disgusted – quite the contrary! The scents were presented in simple glass and aluminium vials. The reaction of the visitors showed that a smell which you have stored in you brain as “bad“ can change through visual presentation.
To quote Sissel Tolaas: „Nothing stinks – only thinking makes it so!“
Being asked by a journalist if she wears perfume herself she said “no“. When the journalist asked “Since when?“, she answered, “Since I was born.“ and added as if the journalist had not understood her work at all: “I am completely different.“