St. Johannes Evangelist Kirche in Berlin’s gallery district Auguststraße will host a special event for the next nine weeks: “Osmodrama,” a festival dedicated to “olfactory art“ — yes: scents and smells. The new art form is the brainchild of Austrian artist, filmmaker, and musician Wolfgang Georgsdorf, the inventor of an instrument he calls a “scent organ,” the “Smeller 2.0.” Operated very similarly to a conventional organ, the apparatus allows for “olfactory narratives” to be performed “as standalones, as music with smells, as films to smell, and as books to smell,” according to an artist statement.The Smeller 2.0 will be installed at the St. Johannes Evangelist Church, an art space in the Mitte district all through “Osmodrama” for a series of events combining performance, exhibition, and lab work. For the festival, Georgsdorf is collaborating with Radialsystem V and the International Literature Festival Berlin, as well as German filmmaker Edgar Reitz, Israeli video artist Omer Fast, and German actress Eva Mattes, among others, to establish “new forms of performance”: pure compositions of smell sequences, or combinations of scent with sound, music, film, dance, and literature. For the creation of the scents, Georgsdorf collaborated with Berlin perfumer Geza Schön, whose “Molecule 01” and other perfumes issued by his label Escentric Molecules have reached cult status. Schön, somewhat of a rebel in his field, previously also collaborated with fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld on the creation of his “Paper Passion Perfume” for German publisher Steidl Verlag – a perfume designed for book fetishists that literally smells of paper and print. Much is thus to be expected from his concoctions for Georgsdorf’s wondrous machine.That will be put to use for the first time on July 15 with the premiere of “Autocomplete,” a composition of smell sequences enticing the audience to “automatically complete olfactory storylines in a reflex-like reaction to the smells flowing into the room,” followed by a panel discussion.Further highlights include scented screenings of Edgar Reitz’s latest episode from his storied 32 part “Heimat” series, “Die Andere Heimat” (“Home From Home”), as well as Omer Fast’s “Continuity” (with an opening film by Georgsdorf); a performance of “Orchestral Whifftracks” with the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra playing works by composer Stephen Crowe; a poetry reading with Nikola Madzirov, Julia Kissina, and Eva Mattes, as well as “Scentscapes & Soundscapes,” an open end live performance of electro acoustic compositions and olfactory art by Georgsdorf and U.S. composer and life computer music pioneer Carl Stone.“Osmodrama. Storytelling with Scents” runs from July 15 to September 18, 2016 at St. Johannes Evangelist Kirche, Berlin, Germany. Opening hours: Thursday & Friday, 12 am – 8 pm; Saturday & Sunday: 4 pm – 10 pm. Click here for more informationOSMODRAMA Storytelling with Scents - Video No.10 from Osmodrama on Vimeo.
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