Olfactory Art Manifest

Abstract

Peter de Cupere wrote his own Olfactory Art Manifest. He signed his Olfactory art manifest with hy own smell which he has developed over 2 years through distillation of his bodily smells. After two years of intensively collecting his bodily smells and distilling these, he had only a small bottle ‘Own Smell’ at his disposal. This smell extract was the ink to sign his manifest.

On August 11th, 1913 Carlo Carrá published "La Pittura dei suoni, rumori, odori: Manifesto futurista" [The Painting of Sounds, Noises, Smells: Futurist Manifesto]. This is the first manifest in which a reference is made to, amongst others, smell.

However, since then, smell was only used sporadically in visual arts. Smell was referenced to, but smell as a medium for the work was hardly ever applied. Only few knew how to find their way to this medium, but then it was only used once or sporadically. It would take until the end of the 20th century before visual artists consequently used smell in all of their works.

Even though the number of visual artists who only create works with smell or used smell in combination with the visual and/or the auditive was rather limited, in the last decennia there has been a clear increase of artists who see smell as an equal medium to paint or to other classic media. Smell becomes more valued as 'part of the work of art' or as 'smell as the work of art' in itself.

There is also a clear increase in interest from the scent industry, more specifically the world of perfumes, which present their scent creation as a piece of art, whether or not linked to the visual arts. Some classic perfumes are even compared to certain –isms from art history. Some 'noses' do not always see their work in light of commerce and are rather looking for the perfect smell art work.

Cross-overs and cooperations between perfumers and visual artists arise. Artists get to know the world of smell better and noses see the added value to link their work of scents to a certain social context. Smell has never been as hot in the world of arts as the last couple of years and we are only at the beginning of this revelation. The most undervalued sense throughout (art) history has seldom gotten so much attention in the world of art as the last decennia. Institutes, organizations and several museums show more and more olfactory art. There is an up rise in organizations, institutes and museums who specializes into Olfactory Art. Also colleges are more open to the integration of smell as medium for the work of art in the education of young rising talent.

This makes the young artists more open to the integration of smell into their work. They venture the smell experiment.

Just as sound, photography and video have become accepted media, smell is becoming common goods of the visual arts. Yet, the integration remains limited for now and that is why this Manifest is written, to bring Olfactory art under the attention as a worthy form of art. Thus we can talk about a new art movement.

Therefore, with this manifest, Olfactory Art is added to the –isms of art and now one talks about 'Olfactism'.