Belle Haleine – The Scent of Art at Museum Tinguely in Basel (Switzerland) is an experimental exhibition that has its focus on art that deals with the sense of smell. On display are works by Marcel Duchamp (the famous “Air de Paris”, Parisian air enclosed in an ampule), Ernesto Neto (“Mentre ninety accade”, an installation consisting of pouches filled with sand, black pepper, turmeric, ginger, and cloves), Piero Manzoni (the infamous tin can filled with “Merda d’artista“, Sissel Tolaas (a white cube filled with the cold sweat of 11 men who suffer from serious phobias), Kristoffer Myskja (a machine that smokes cigarettes), and many others.
Belle Haleine – The Scent of Art aims to shed light on the fascination world of odor and olfactory art: “The sense of smell is not represented in our increasingly digitalized life worlds (yet). In research, the universe of smelling still harbors much that is unknown, and so, with its anarchic force as a component of artistic works, it is perhaps of particular interest precisely today.” (Roland Wetzel, Director, Museum Tinguely).
Belle Haleine – The Scent of Art at Museum Tinguely, Basel (Switzerland). Vernissage, February 20, 2015.
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