Scene-setting scents: Elodie Pong's 'Paradise Paradoxe' in Zurich

Video still from Pong's installation
An intriguing new exhibition in Zurich about scent has been put together by the Swiss video and installation artist Elodie Pong. Pictured: Video still from Pong’s installation
(Image credit: Elodie Pong)

We hesitate to make any comment about appropriate names, but we couldn’t help noting the happy coincidence that an intriguing new exhibition in Zurich about scent has been put together by the Swiss video and installation artist Elodie Pong.

In this solo show at the Helmaus Zurich, Pong, who trained as a sociologist and anthropologist, charts new perceptual territory with art that you can smell. As she points out, scents establish nonverbal connections between people, objects and places, and while you can close your eyes, you can’t turn off your nose.

In Paradise Paradoxe, as the show is called, Pong probes the invisible olfactory architecture that surrounds us, with the help of plants created by a 3D printer and a robot that hurls the names of perfumes at a wall, not to mention a fragrance that has never been smelled before. In the accompanying video works, she juxtaposes ideas from current olfactory theory with the dancing human body, as a literal source of many and varied odours
In another room a mobile projector, mounted on a robot, displays the names of real perfumes on the walls, names that enable the hugely profitable perfume industry to build linguistic ‘boxes’ round something that – by its nature – transcends words. In addition, Pong has enlisted the help of scent scientist Roman Kaiser, one of the pioneers of headspace technology, to create a new perfume for the exhibition, which will also include concerts, talks and music workshops, not to mention a performance of pop songs on a theremin.

The solo show at the Helmaus Zurich, charts new perceptual territory with art that you can smell

The solo show at the Helmaus Zurich, charts new perceptual territory with art that you can smell

(Image credit: Elodie Pong)

In Paradise Paradoxe, as the show is called, Pong probes the invisible olfactory architecture that surrounds us

In Paradise Paradoxe, as the show is called, Pong probes the invisible olfactory architecture that surrounds us

(Image credit: Elodie Pong)

A fragrance that has never been smelled before

...with the help of plants created by a 3D printer and a robot that hurls the names of perfumes at a wall, not to mention a fragrance that has never been smelled before

(Image credit: Elodie Pong)

In the accompanying video works

In the accompanying video works (pictured), she juxtaposes ideas from current olfactory theory with the dancing human body, as a literal source of many and varied odours

(Image credit: Elodie Pong)

In another room, a mobile projector, mounted on a robot, displays the names of real perfumes on the walls

In another room, a mobile projector, mounted on a robot, displays the names of real perfumes on the walls

(Image credit: Elodie Pong)

INFORMATION

Paradise Paradoxe is at the Helmhaus Zurich until 8 May. For more information, visit the website

Photography: courtesy of the artist

ADDRESS

Stadt Zurich
Helmhaus Zurich
Limmatquai 31
8001 Zurich 

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