There are various ways of collecting, and none can be said to be better than any other. It’s good to start collecting in your own good time, but knowing what you want.
In the case of the Visual Odour collection, there is a very clear guideline: the object in question must ‘give off’ an odour in order to be eligible for inclusion. It need not do so physically, of course, but it must evoke an olfactory memory for the collector.
Visual artists usually have a highly developed senses of sight and touch, but a less developed sense of smell, given that smell is harder to represent, and because in our cultural system olfactory sensitivity tends to be neglected and thus undervalued and underdeveloped. Nevertheless, certain colours produces sensations, olfactory memories, though such memories are no doubt very subjective.
When the artist creates his or her work, its composition is based not on a sensation, but on the memory of sensation. Art exists to stimulate the spirit and to challenge our way of perceiving creative expression. The Visual Odour collection exists in order to stimulate our artistic and olfactory spirit.
Smell permeates the memory, but it is invisible, as if it emanated from its inner depths; it seems to come from the interior of things… The collector perceives this and takes it as the basic premise in putting together this collection.
Cristina Agàpito Bruguera
Direcction-Curator
