CONFESSION, De Lovie-Poperinge, Belgium
CONFESSION
2015
Olfactory-acoustic scenario
Presented at:
Ocupación: Collateral 12th Bienal de La Habana at Estudio de Los Carpinteros, Havana, Cuba (2015)
The Smell of War at De Lovie-Poperinge, Belgium (2015)
Collaborator:
Smell component created with senior perfumer Ricardo Moya (IFF)
CONFESSION
is an invitation to kneel at a confessional stand that is placed in front of an aquarium holding a smell composition. The title refers to our desire to cleanse actions, to acknowledge our wrongs and, as a result, to believe that we are forgiven. Cyclical sounds made from recordings of seawater from around the world fill the room. The smell component responds to the phenomena of bleach and bleaching - a process of cleansing and whitening used to remove the unwanted and contaminated. Chlorine cleans 90% of the water drunk every day in the UK and USA. It is also the base element for the creation of mustard gas, a chemical weapon used in the First World War a century ago and in Aleppo today. What cleans can also kill. This work questions where the line of cleaning is drawn.