Grün / Grün / Grün

Smellscape / Duftinstallation – Salotto, Vienna

Der Künstler Paul Divjak hat den zarten Duft eines blühenden Orangenhains durch die New Yorker Neue Galerie wehen lassen. Er hat internationale Museen in mittelalterlich stinkende Kloaken verwandelt und zuletzt auf Einladung der Wiener Achse den Pratersauna Art Space zu einem synthetischen Erdbeerland gemacht.

Exklusiv für den Salotto Vienna destillierte und komponierte Divjak nun ein olfaktorisches Naturlandschaftsbild und holt Wald und Wiese, Hochnebel und Moos nach Aspern Seestadt.

// The artist Paul Divjak already let the soft smell of a blooming orange grove through the Neue Galerie New York. He turned international museums into stinky medieval cesspits and recently he was invited by Wiener Achse to make the Art Space in Pratersauna smell like a strawberry land.

Exclusively for Salotto Vienna Divjak was distilling and composing an olfactory natural landscape. He brings wood and lawn, high fog and dosh to Aspern Seestadt.

Salotto Vienna

2013Scent Lab ViennaSmellscapes

Diffusing Molecules #2

Scent Design for the Museum of Natural History

Scent design for the travelling exhibition KINGDOM OF SALT / DAS WEISSE GOLD DER KELTEN [Clients: Museum of Natural History, Vienna / Museumspartner, Innsbruck]

Focusing on the newest interdisciplinary research, the exhibition shows the town of Hallstatt, located in the Austrian Alps, as a “cradle of Europe’s industrialisation”: a progression of settlement and mining over 7000 years.

Visitors can explore the displays in the shape of huge „salt blocks“, i.e atmospheric rooms, which provide ambient sounds, video projections, multimedia shows, computer animations – and historical on location-smellscapes.

For this show I´m providing – in cooperation with German scent specialist Elke Kies from MagicBox – the Museum of Natural History (Vienna) with expertise, conceptual development and the exclusive creation of unique olfactory experiences: from the neolithic age up to 350 BC, from „untouched nature“ to the smell of „the global village“.

MARQ – Alicante/Spain [14.06.2013 - 31.01.2014]
WESTFÄLISCHES LANDESMUSEUM – Herne/Germany [23.08.2014 - 25.01.2015]
Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Sachsen [03.07.2015 - 03.01.2016]

2016Scent Lab ViennaSmellscapes

Memories Of Water

MoE - Museum Of Emptiness, St.Gallen

©Michel Canonica

“Memories Of Water”, Molekül-Installation

„Heute besteht kaum Zweifel daran, dass die intuitive Vorstellung vom leeren Raum als statischem, ereignislosem Schauplatz vollkommen falsch ist. Infolge der Quantenschärfe ist der leere Raum ein Tummelplatz turbulenter Quantenaktivitäten.“
Brian Greene (Der Stoff aus dem der Kosmos ist)

Es gibt Stimmen, die sagen, Wasser könne verschiedene Strukturen annehmen, es würde auf Umgebungseinflüsse und gar Emotionen reagieren, es hätte ein Gedächtnis und könne Information speichern. Andere wiederum sind davon überzeugt, bei Wasser handle es sich einfach um eine chemische Verbindung, die eine Formel habe: H20 … — mehr —

2022Scent Lab ViennaSmellscapes

Diffusing Terpenes

KMH, Liechtenstein, 2022

“Diffusing Terpenes: The Effects of Forest Bathing” (Scent installation at the occasion of: “durchforsten”, KMH – küefermartishuus / Liechtenstein, 27.5 – 18.12. 2022)

Studies have shown the significant physiological effect forest atmosphere can have on humans. This circumstance has lead to the so-called trend of “forest bathing” (Shinrin Yoku). Scientists assume that the effects are achieved by breathing in the forest atmosphere, which contains various phytochemicals produced mainly by trees. So far, many terpenes prevalent in forest air have been found to have strong biological activities; their possible antiviral, antibacterial, antitumourigenic or neuroprotective effects have been demonstrated. Although research is increasingly focusing on the potential impacts, scientific data and evidence as well as the understanding of the potential and possible uses of terpenes are still lacking in many cases. — mehr —

2016Scent Lab ViennaSmellscapes

Im Prater blüh´n …

Duftinstallation / Smellscape

“Im Prater blüh´n wieder die Bäume”, MuseumQuartier

IM PRATER BLÜH´N WIEDER DIE BÄUME, Smellscape / scent installation, 2016
(In Prater the trees are blossoming again)

A project commissioned for Wir-sind-Wien-Festival
Public Space, Vienna – in cooperation with: Kunst Haus Wien / Museum Hundertwasser, Historical Museum of Vienna, Museums Quarter Vienna, The Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art.

With „In Prater the trees are blossoming again “ Paul Divjak is focusing on the diversity of urban smell and the manipulation of our olfactory surroundings. Setting up temporary smellscapes (olfactory interventions) the artist is transferring odours of famous Vienna Prater (the Emperor´s former hunting grounds) into the very city center, and in front of several museums. The aroma of musty earth, woods, lime blossoms and lilac is to be experienced at urban locations, which usually are defined by the lack of any green.The audience is such invited into the realm of the sense of smell and to reflect everyday perceptions.
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