The second annual Scent + Art festival in Riga, Latvia this May was a much needed boost of community and creativity that amplified scent in courageous, and intuitive ways. The curation was inclusive and experimental, towing the line of serendipity and faith in the interdisciplinary nature of art and scent. Founder Sandris Mūriņš and his team of curators (see below entire team and programming) did an incredible job facilitating a program, two exhibition spaces and hosting in a short period. What takes most institutions 18 months to 2 years they pulled off in what seemed like 6-10 months. Bravo to the entire team of organizers and participants!
The theme of this years festival was the fog of uncertainty. The festival was entirely refreshing, a welcome respite from the long line of more polished and try-hard festivals in scent and/or art – this was honest, humble, and deeply moving. One must experience this to understand it, as it is hard to put into words. The term wabi sabi comes to mind in terms of care and keeping of scent and art attracting many multi-disciplinary artists, scientists and thinkers from over 30 countries.
It was an honor to kick off the festival with a talk featuring my work that I do with uncertainty both clinically and in my studio practice. While written almost 10 years ago (!!), Nose Dive continues to be a perennial invitation to explore scent and creativity in an open-minded way. I shared and continue to emphasize reminders to expand the olfactory lens to explore scent work largely outside of the “perfume” lens such as conceptual, material and performative scent work.
Many thanks to the scientists, dancers, visual artists, writers, performing artists and researchers that contributed some words from the festival to the Odorbet. Some of the words are attributed to specific practitioners and some I have completely made up with creative license inspired by the work I engaged with. Please send your corrections and/or additions:). Also please keep your eye open for applications for next years festival, they have a beautiful theme, and if your work is aligned I highly recommend pursuing.
Liels paldies for the incredible event this year! And thank you for making this a community, connecting and non-hierarchical moment of pure art and serious play!
AROMACHECK | SMELLCHECK
A aromacheck or smellcheck is a technical run-through before a concert, speech, or performance the is also utilizing scent as a feature. It allows scent engineers or artists to test the equipment, set optimal intensity levels, and adjust the scent quality for the audience and the performers.
Why a smellcheck is necessary:
Aromacoustics: Every venue has different dimensions and materials, which changes how sound travels and bounces around.
Equipment Safety: It ensures all fans, vents, and hotplates if using are plugged into the correct channels and working properly.
Monitor Mixes: It allows artists and scent engineers to adjust what they smell through their stage fans.
AROMA DANCING
A way to use scent to inform movement, performance and choreography.
AROMA JOCKEYING (aka AJ-ing)
Erik Fooladi held a workshop at the Scent + Art Festival which inspired me to expand on the Aroma Jockey term he (and others) use.
A aroma jockey (commonly abbreviated as AJ) is a person who curates and plays scent for an audience.
AROMACOUSTICS
Aromacoustics might be the interdisciplinary science of scent in space. It covers the production, control, transmission, reception, and effects of mechanical waves across gases, liquids, and solids.
Below are the foundational areas and applications of the potentially bourgeoning field:
Key concepts of scent related to aromacoustics
Wave Generation: Scent is created by vibrations that push and pull on a medium (like air), creating cycles of high and low pressure.
Scent Frequency: Determines the pitch of a scent.
AROMAMPLITUDE: Determines the volume or loudness of a scent
Primary fields of potential study
Architectural & Room Aromacoustics: The study of how scent waves behave, reflect, and are absorbed within enclosed spaces or outdoor venues.
Environmental Aromacoustics: The study, modeling, and control of scent pollution from traffic, industrial machinery, and public spaces.
Bio-aromacoustics: The study of how animals produce and perceive scent.
AROMA TALKING
Overheard in a session and assume this means the informal talk about all things factory, and/or the acknowledgement that scent may speak in a language we have yet to discover though understand intuitively. In other words the “aroma is talking”.
AROMOGRAPHY | SCENTOGRAPHY
Director of the festival Sandris Mūriņš shared an inspiring presentation snd show and tell of scent capture that he shares is a pivotal role in story telling when capturing a moment. This is an ongoing investigation, and the equipment they shared points to a very exciting future for cultural documentation and olfactory story telling.
Aromagraphy is the emerging art and practice of capturing, storing, and releasing odors, serving as a new multisensory medium. Just as photography records visual moments or audio preserves sound, aromagraphy utilizes specialized technologies—like a scent recorder—to archive the chemical signatures of specific places, memories, or human identities.
Key concepts in the field include:
Olfactory Storytelling: Practitioners use scent to build immersive narratives, capturing the “smellscapes” of locations like cities, festivals, or daily social lifestyles.
Atmospheric Narratives: Scent becomes a temporal, emotional, and cultural indicator that expands beyond traditional art forms.
Cross-Modal Exploration: It is frequently combined with visual arts, dance, and photography to create multi-sensory experiences.
ODOPHONICS (ODOPHONE + PHONICS)
Brian Goeltzenleuchter in collaboration with Preston (blank) and
Cross modality and combining it with phonics – and a language structure is an ongoing, multi-sensory art project by scent artist Brian Goeltzenleuchter. It translates the 19th-century theories of French perfumer Septimus Piesse—who mapped scents to musical notes—into immersive live performances. Piesse created the “Odophone” in 1858, a scale of smells where individual scents correspond directly to pitches on the musical scale. Odophonics brings this historic theory to life by pairing live chamber music or choir performances with the controlled release of specific corresponding scents.
OLFACTORY ACTIVISM
Olfactory activism is the creative, political, or social use of scent to bypass rational defenses and trigger visceral, involuntary emotional responses. Activists, academics, and artists use it to highlight environmental racism, challenge consumer culture, and raise funds for justice-oriented organizations.Because smell is deeply linked to the amygdala and hippocampus in the brain, it is an incredibly powerful tool for social messaging. The field operates across several distinct areas:
Environmental Justice & Air Quality
Atmospheric Politics: Air is inherently political. Scholars highlight how environmental risk—such as the smell of freeway exhaust, pesticides, and industrial pollution—is unevenly distributed across class and racial lines.
The Smell of Conflict and Risk: Academics explore how communities have historically used foul odors as an early warning system for environmental hazards and public health crises, and how marginalized communities are disproportionately exposed to toxic and noxious airscapes.
Artistic & Performative Interventions
Challenging Consumerism: Artists use scents to subvert corporate branding. For instance, by recreating the breath or sweat of historical figures, artists humanize towering icons and force audiences to question the sanitized history presented by commodified, synthetic perfumes.
Sensory Signatures: Creating distinct scent profiles for social movements or protests builds immediate, shared physical solidarity among participants, linking the fight for justice with sensory experiences.
OSMONIC
Artist Bruno Mesz presented a work that may be considered olfactory activism at this years festival. It also used olfaction and music, which he refers to osmonic (art combining smell and music). Bruno published an article on this in the German contemporary music journal Positionen, co-edited by festival director Sandris Mūriņš. He has generously shared for Odorbet readers here for download. Two other works via YouTube for your to explore are here and here.
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Programming for 2026 Scent + Art Festival
(All text below is from the organizers, please see artists and reach out directly to them if interested in their work or collaboration).
The exhibition “Through the Fog of Uncertainty” is organized as guided tours (maximum 50 participants per tour) and can only be visited with a guide.
Tours begin at the start of every hour.
Festival 2026 theme explores living in a time when the future feels unclear and unpredictable. Shaped by war, shifting values, climate change, and rapid technological change, today’s world can feel unstable. Fog serves as a metaphor for what obscures what lies ahead, making direction harder to find, while inviting us to slow down and attend more closely to the present moment.
Festival Organizers:
Festival director: Sandris Mūriņš
Exhibition “Scent Archive” curator: Marika Roze -nberga
Exhibition “Through the Fog of Uncertainty” curators: Sandris Mūriņš & Anna Vilāne
Performance programme curators: Maria Zegna & Ieva Vilciņa
Lectures and workshop curator: Sandris Mūriņš
Technical support for exhibition: Artūrs Arnis
Technical support for performances and events: Artūrs Voinovs (Lares Baltic Tribal Gathering)
Communication: Roberta Tukiša, Solvita Lazdāne, Sandris Mūriņš
Volunteer coordinator: Roberta Tukiša
Exhibitions
Through the Fog of Uncertainty
Inspired by the festival 2026 theme, explores living in a time when the future feels unclear and unpredictable. Shaped by war, shifting values, climate change, and rapid technological change, today’s world can feel unstable. Fog serves as a metaphor for what obscures what lies ahead, making direction harder to find, while inviting us to slow down and attend more closely to the present moment.
Smell of hug
by Eeva-Liisa Puhakka, Finland
Gradual Descent/Rothko Rooms 2
by Bruno Mesz, Maria Zegna, Erik Fooladi, Andreas Barth, Argentina
OBUM: Latent Narrative
by Kate Armstrong & Michael Tippett, Canada
Ça sent le sapin
by Lisa Rommé, France
HIER UND JETZT / HERE AND NOW
by David Häuser & Diana Galli, Germany
POLITUNES
by Sergey Khismatov, Germany
Figure at the table
by Santa Kristiāna Krūze, Latvia
Event Horizon. Women
by Arta Ozola-Jaunarāja, Latvia
BIJUMA BIJĪBA / Reverence of time
by Viola Karule, Latvia
A Word Beginning with W by Anna Brudzinska, Poland
To Reach You
by Se Young Au, USA
Cindence
by Artūrs Petersons, Marija Zegna, Bruno Mesz, Latvia+Argentina
Des Esseintes
by Bruno Mesz and Sebastian Tedesco, Argentina
Memories Unheard,
Futures Forgotten
by Juice Cui, China
Sentimental Actions
by Leni Smoragdova, Georgia
Ieraugi/Leaven
by Dana Vetrova, Latvia
The Dialogues
by Kristina Elettra Rubine, Latvia
Pavedināšana/ Seduction
by Evija Ābrama, Latvia
Walk With My Dog
by Xinlyu Wang (Shu), USA
Above the ground, on the ground,
below the ground
by Daria Titova, Ukraine
What you take to bed with you
by Mojca Radkovič, Slovenia
Paths of Persistence: Life in the Cuts of Dhaka
by Tarik Rahman, Bangladesh
Fruits of our labour
by Perry Chong, Singapore
Scent Archive
Artists use smell to record and recreate different environments, emotions and disappearing landscapes. Scent becomes a way to hold onto what is usually fading or invisible, making memory something physical and immediate.
KNOT YET
by Alexandre Levi, Germany
The Bridal Bouquet Held by Latvian Women
by Emīlija Grinberga, Latvia
After the Ashes / Sensory Traces
by Pasiphae Kythera Non Profit Organisation, Greece
Botanical Forest
by Lefrang Lucille, France
I Walked the Path to the Ghost Forest
by Emilia Telese, Iceland
A Time for Peace, A Time for Waltz
by Gabriel De Carvalho, UK
Rosemary’s anarchiving
by Polina Golovátina-Mora, Bridget
Sheridan, Norway+France
A Scented non-site, a coastal Natural Park
by Rosa Almeida, Portugal
Nice to Sniff You (맡나서반가워요)
by Hyeeun Kwak, South Korea
Scratch ‘n Sniff Ohio Rivers
by Alyssa Keil, USA
Pitch Pine Pollen: A Transforming Forest in Image + Scent
by Irina Adam, USA
Do you remember what it smelled like back then?
by Franzi Goralski, Germany
When Life Gives You Lemons
by Nada Tomic, Serbia
The Scent of Words
by Nihat Ozdal, Turkey
PPP – Present Perfect Process
by Diana Lelis and Elīza Eikerte, Latvia
3 sisters
by Maija Sjomkāne, Latvia
The Smellscape of Riga
by Elīne Buka, Latvia
Portrait of Human Greed and Derangement
by Katrīna Tračuma, Latvia
Chanel No. 5
by Velta Esmeralda Kalnozola-Kalsere, Latvia
Smarža Mi
by Anna Brudzinska, Poland
Deep Breath
by Caetano Mendes Dias, Portugal
at0mizeR
by Zsolt Mesterhazy, Netherlands
A Poetic of Space
by Emerson Voss, USA
Pollinated by touch
by Rita Pranča, Latvia
Other Works
Homage to Papa
by #FFFF00
Salt, Ink, and the Breathing Sea
by Maryna Gradnova
No name
by Alexander Khan
Scent is Present – an experimental handbook of essays,
resources and exercises on olfaction
by Michaela Cagáňová and Sleepy Press
Medium spicy
by Anna Vilāne and Krišjānis Stikāns
May 6: Festival Opening
16:00 – 17:00 1 Shed Speed Networking Session by Sandris Mūriņš
A fast-paced introduction format designed specifically for festival participants. Through one-minute one-to-one meetings, artists and contributors quickly get to know one another. The session enables rapid connections across disciplines and helps build a sense of community. It sets the groundwork for further encounters and collaborations throughout the festival. Instagram: @sandrismurins
18:00 – 19:00 1 Shed Festival Opening Words by Sandris Mūriņš
A concise opening address marking the official start of the festival. It introduces the curatorial vision and thematic framework of the programme, situating the festival within an interdisciplinary context. It welcomes participants and audiences, establishing a shared framework for exploration, exchange, and collaboration across the festival programme. Instagram: @sandrismurins
Lecture “A Case for Scent as an Artist’s Most Powerful Tool: Scent’s Vital Role in Free Association, Divergent Thinking, and Creativity” by Catherine Haley Epstein
Lecture exploring scent in contemporary artistic practice and its expanding relevance within creative work. It presents key clinical insights into scent’s capacity to enhance imagination, support free association, and foster divergent thinking. The session combines theoretical perspectives with visual material and includes a short guided scent exercise. Instagram: @mindmarrow
Scented-video dance “Cindence” by Maria Zegna & Artūrs Petersons (Nōrtean)
A performance combining scent, video, and dance that reflects a fractured relationship with the earth. It explores a state of ecological and existential rupture, where meaning is destabilised and the body remains grounded in a landscape that can no longer sustain it. Through a floor-bound choreography, the work unfolds as a sensual and spiritual ritual of connection and invocation. Instagram: @mariazegna, @norteanperfume, @bmesz
19:00 – 21:00 1 Shed Performance “Salt, Ink, and the Breathing Ocean” by Maryna Gradnova
A live, evolving ink installation that approaches the sea as a living, breathing entity. Large-scale drawing unfolds on absorbent paper through slow gestural marks shaped by gravity, water, and chance, evoking tides and marine movement. The work resists fixed imagery, becoming a record of flow, erosion, and transformation. Scent extends the drawing into an invisible layer, activating memory and embodied perception within a multisensory installation. Instagram: @costumemodehistory
19:00 – 20:00 2 Performance space Music performance “Odophonics: A Performance for Scent and Choir” by Brian Goeltzenleuchter, Preston Swirnoff & Jāzepa Mediņa Rīgas Mūzikas vidusskolas jauktais koris (Choir conductor Tomass Meri, Artistic director Nora Žeigure)
A multidisciplinary performance that treats scent as a compositional and performative medium alongside choral sound. The work brings together chemistry, music, and spatial arrangement to explore how scent interacts with perception, memory, and emotion. It challenges conventional hierarchies of the senses, reframing listening as an expanded, multisensory experience in which smell and sound are interwoven. Instagram: @bg_projects, @prestonswir, @norazeigure
20:00 – 21:00 2 Performance space Live streaming “Under the Fog, Under Ground, Under Memory, day 1 in remembrance of the seas and oceans” by Alexandre Zafar Khan
A live-streamed scented contribution from La Laverie + Atelier 110 in Val-de-Reuil, Normandy (France), presented as part of the festival’s remote programme. The work reflects on seas and oceans through layered imagery of fog, subterranean space, and memory. It creates a contemplative audiovisual environment that connects distant locations through shared ecological reflection and remembrance.
Technological demonstration “From Septimus Piesse to the ESP32: Building the Osmo v5” by Bruno Mesz
A presentation of the Osmo v5, an “aroma organ” that emits controlled sequences of scent like a musical instrument. Based on research into crossmodal links between music and olfaction, it uses a precision heating and evaporation system to generate olfactory compositions. The demonstration traces its development from early scent–music theories to contemporary digital design. Instagram: @bmesz
21:00 – 23:00 2 Performance space Experience “Aroma Dancing” by Ieva Vilciņa & Sandris Mūriņš
A participatory sensory experience exploring the intersection of contemporary dance and scent art. The session begins with a short introduction to the physiological and emotional effects of olfactory stimuli, followed by guided and improvised movement. Scent is used as an active choreographic force, shaping balance, proprioception, emotional response, and movement quality within the body. Instagram: @nisperochirimoya, @sandrismurins
21:00 – 23:00 3 Office Experience “Scented Tinder” by Kristiāna Šuksta
A participatory sensory matchmaking experience where participants meet and evaluate each other through smell, taste, touch, and sound, without visual contact or speech. After the session, participants receive contact information for their best match. The work rethinks digital dating culture by shifting focus from visual judgement to multisensory and embodied perception. Instagram: @kristiana.suksta
21:00 – 23:00 Meeting in (1) Shed Experience “Dreaming Futures” by Annija Sprīvule & Inese Bērziņa
A guided sensory experience combining scent, lullabies, and meditation to evoke a dream-like state. Participants are invited to imagine possible futures within a world shaped by ongoing polycrisis. Through scent and sound associated with childhood memory, the work encourages reflection on what may be lost if current geopolitical trajectories continue. Instagram: @annija_sprivule, @ineseberzina1234
21:00 – 23:00 1 Shed Scented Video dance “A ceremony for the burnt land” by Pasiphae Kythera
This video documents a dance performance created in the burned landscape of Kythera, Greece, with four dancers and one musician. Through Butoh, the body becomes a site of transformation, not expressing but undergoing the landscape. Filmed in the scorched terrain near Myrtidia, the work unfolds as a quiet ritual. Ash, soil, and silence shape the movement, while live music creates an improvisational dialogue between body and environment. The dancers do not represent the landscape. They enter it. Through breath, stillness, and minimal gesture, the body becomes a carrier of memory, tracing a passage between loss and regeneration. Choreography and Performance: Eliza Soroga, Marianna Tsagkaraki, Georgia Tseri, Iphigenia Vogiatzaki. Music: Thodoris Ziarkas. Instagram: @pasiphae_kythera
May 7: Exhibitions Opening
10:00 – 11:00 1 Shed Mentoring Sessions with Brian Goeltzenleuchter, Bruno Mesz, Gabriel De Carvalho, Lisa Rommé, Hyeeun Kwak, Erik Fooladi
One-to-one mentoring sessions featuring 7-minute conversations with international artists and researchers working across scent, sound, performance, and interdisciplinary practice. Participants present their work or ideas in a focused format and receive direct feedback and insights. Instagram: @bg_projects, @bmesz, @the_olfactory_art_studio, @olfactoryartist_hyen, @art_olfactory, @erikfooladi
11:00 – 12:00 1 Shed Masterclass “The Olfactory Present: Strategies for Integrating Scent and Contemporary Art” by Brian Goeltzenleuchter
A masterclass exploring scent as a critical but underutilised medium in contemporary art. Drawing on artistic practice and interdisciplinary research, it presents strategies for integrating olfaction into exhibitions, installations, and performance contexts. The session examines how scent activates memory, disrupts visual dominance, and shapes embodied experience, positioning smell as a tool for rethinking contemporary artistic practice in times of uncertainty. Instagram: @bg_projects
12:00 – 15:00 1 Shed Workshop “Olfactory Translation: From Concept to Composition. Translating ideas, images, and narratives into scent” by Gabriel De Carvalho.
A workshop introducing the fundamentals of scent creation from an artistic perspective. It explores scent materials and how they can be interpreted and transformed into olfactory compositions. Through short theoretical input and practical exercises, participants learn to translate ideas, images, and narratives into scent, approaching olfaction as both a creative and interpretive medium. Instagram: @the_olfactory_art_studio
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12:00 – 13:00 2 Performance space Workshop “Smell Organ Demo” by Bruno Mesz
A hands-on workshop introducing the structure and functioning of a smell organ. Participants learn how the instrument is built and how scent sequences are technically produced and controlled. The session includes a practical demonstration and basic guidance on how to operate the system, exploring scent as a time-based, performative medium. Instagram: @bmesz
13:00 – 14:00 3 Office Workshop “Flamenco: Rhythm in Motion, Scent in Space” by Arta Ozola-Jaunarāja
A masterclass combining flamenco movement, body percussion, and rhythm techniques in an accessible format for participants of all levels. The session is complemented by a specially created olfactory environment, forming a multisensory experience where movement and scent interact. Participants explore basic flamenco steps, posture, simple body percussion patterns, and rhythm awareness exercises, while investigating how scent can influence perception of movement and presence in space. Instagram: @artaozolajaunaraja
14:00 – 15:00 2 Performance space Experiment “Olfaction and Music: Crossmodal Links” by Oriente Pimentel Aldaz
A session combining a short lecture and a participatory research component in collaboration with Oxford University. It introduces key findings on crossmodal links between olfaction and music, exploring how scent can influence perception of sound and emotion. Participants then take part in structured sensory tasks contributing to ongoing research on multisensory perception.
17:00 – 18:00 1 Shed Lecture “Turkey’s Scent Culture” by Nihat Özdal (CANCELED)
A lecture exploring the cultural history and contemporary practices of scent in Turkey. It introduces key references and practices connected to olfactory traditions across different periods. The session offers a broader reflection on how scent operates within cultural and sensory experience. Instagram: @nihatozdal
18:00 – 19:00 1 Shed Lecture “What Does Art Smell Like?” by Lisa Rommé
A lecture exploring olfactory art as a contemporary medium distinct from commercial perfumery. It examines how smell is used in galleries and public spaces through installation, performance, and experimental practices. The session introduces key approaches, historical moments, and practical considerations in creating scent-based artworks, offering a framework for understanding how olfaction can shape artistic experience, memory, and perception. Instagram: @art_olfactory
19:00 – 20:00 1 Shed
Exhibition Opening Words by Curators – Marika Rozenberga, Anna Vilāne & Sandris Mūriņš
A short curatorial introduction marking the opening of the exhibitions “Through the Fog of Uncertainty” and “Scent Archive.” The curators present the conceptual frameworks and key themes of both exhibitions, situating the works within the broader festival context. Instagram: @followzenose, @ejamsaunda, @sandrismurins
Guided Tours by Curators and Artists
Guided tours of the exhibitions “Through the Fog of Uncertainty” and “Scent Archive,” led by the curatorial team and participating artists. The tours offer insight into the conceptual frameworks, artistic processes, and sensory approaches behind the works.
20:00 – 21:00 2 Performance space Performance “KNOT YET” by Alexandre Levi
A butoh performance exploring how the future is sensed through uncertainty and chance, inhabiting the fragile space between what has ended and what has not yet begun. A capsule dispenser bound in rope forms a network of knots, where tension and release shape the unfolding of possible futures. The scents accompany the experience, extending perception beyond the visual dimension and intertwining smell, gesture, and chance throughout the work. Instagram: @alexparistokyo
20:00 – 21:00 Exhibition hall “Through the Fog of Uncertainty”
Performance “Memories Unheard, Futures Forgotten” by Juice Cui
An experimental live sound and scent performance exploring nostalgia, identity, and perception through an immersive multisensory environment. The audience is surrounded by an evolving landscape of shifting fragrances and a live-generated soundscape created from found and resonant objects. Drawing on experimental sound practices and scent research, the work blurs the boundaries between memory and imagination, presence and absence. Through sensory distortion and immersion, it invites reflection on how personal and collective narratives are formed, fragmented, and reimagined. Instagram: @juice_shuting
21:00 – 23:00 2 Performance space Session-video performance-installation “PPP – Present Perfect Process” by Diana Lelis and Elīza Eikerte
LV PPP – ilgstošās tagadnes process = seanss-video performance-instalācija = scenogrāfisks risinājums ķermeniskām izpausmēm, kas formē un formatē dabu. Caur maņām piedzīvot ilgstošās tagadnes procesu, pieredzēt ķermeni un vidi kā savstarpēji saistītus meta-kontekstus, somatiskus un sensorus medijpastarpinājumus, mēģinājumā sastapt radīšanas drošības salu, veļot apli, iekrītot straumes plūsmā/s, ko varētu dēvēt par kaisli, un koki ir t/elpa, klāt.būtne, iegremdēšanās, tuvāk Sev.
Instagram: @lelispoems, @elizaeikerte
ENG PPP – Present Perfect Process = session-video performance-installation – a scenographic framework for embodied expressions that shape and format nature. Through sensory experience, it engages with the “present perfect,” encountering body and environment as interconnected meta-contexts, mediated through somatics and sensory, attempting to reach act of creation – safe haven – moving through and falling into free-flow, streams and dreams and states – might be described as passion.
Tree becomes a core – the present is perfect – to immerse, to dive into oneself.
Instagram: @lelispoems, @elizaeikerte
May 8: Topic: Scent Archive
10:00 – 11:00 1 Shed Collaborative Networking moderated by Sandris Mūriņš
A collaborative networking session designed to connect festival participants across disciplines. Each participant is invited to briefly present their project or idea, opening space for exchange and potential collaboration within and outside the festival context. The session is moderated to support focused dialogue and the formation of new creative partnerships. Instagram: @sandrismurins
11:00 – 12:00 1 Shed Masterclass “Reimagining Domestic Space: A Multisensory Music-Theatrical Methodology of Home” by Emerson Voss
A lecture exploring domestic space not as subject matter, but as a methodology for artistic practice. It traces the development of a practice grounded in everyday intimacies, informed by philosophical approaches to care, memory, and relational space. The session reflects on site-specific immersive work as a way of shaping perception, identity, and spatial awareness, and considers how forms of intimacy and vulnerability can be translated from domestic settings into public space. Instagram: @chesscomposer
12:00 – 14:00 2 Performance space Workshop “Aroma Jockeying” by Erik Fooladi
A participatory workshop introducing aroma jockeying (AJ-ing) through a short lecture, practical demonstration, and group discussion. Participants are guided through the principles of sequencing and presenting scent as a performative medium. The session includes a hands-on “dry test” where participants experiment with basic AJ techniques, exploring scent as a time-based and interactive form of expression. Instagram: @erikfooladi
12:00 – 13:00 3 Office Workshop “Rosemary’s Anarchiving” by Polina Golovátina-Mora & Bridget Sheridan
A co-laborative workshop exploring “anarchiving” as an active, sensory practice of remembering and knowledge-making. Through the presence of rosemary as an agent of stimulation and affect, participants engage with memory beyond passive storage. The session approaches sensing as a form of co-creation, where hearing, perception, and embodied experience generate new ways of relating to knowledge, presence, and collective remembrance. Instagram: @bsheridan.walkingart
13:00 – 14:00 Exhibition hall “Through the Fog of Uncertainty”
Workshop “Smell Organ Demo” by Bruno Mesz
A hands-on workshop introducing the structure and functioning of a smell organ. Participants learn how the instrument is built and how scent sequences are technically produced and controlled. The session includes a practical demonstration and basic guidance on how to operate the system, exploring scent as a time-based, performative medium. Instagram: @bmesz
13:00 – 14:00 3 Office Workshop “Flamenco: Rhythm in Motion, Scent in Space” by Arta Ozola-Jaunarāja
A masterclass combining flamenco movement, body percussion, and rhythm techniques in an accessible format for participants of all levels. The session is complemented by a specially created olfactory environment, forming a multisensory experience where movement and scent interact. Participants explore basic flamenco steps, posture, simple body percussion patterns, and rhythm awareness exercises, while investigating how scent can influence perception of movement and presence in space. Instagram: @artaozolajaunaraja
14:00 – 15:00 2 Performance space Workshop “ESSIRE Deprivation made Eroticism – Cinema and Olfaction ” by Liss Leussant
The seminar addresses the implicit eroticism of censored classical cinema where desire is mediated through suggestion, gesture, and atmosphere in parallel with the non-representational sensuality of olfaction. Informed by art theory and psychoanalytic frameworks, participants will develop a perfume concept as a formal and aesthetic construct. Instagram: @liss.leussant
14:00 – 15:00 3 Office Experiment “Olfaction and Music: Crossmodal Links” by Oriente Pimentel Aldaz
A session combining a short lecture and a participatory research component in collaboration with Oxford University. It introduces key findings on crossmodal links between olfaction and music, exploring how scent can influence perception of sound and emotion. Participants then take part in structured sensory tasks contributing to ongoing research on multisensory perception.
17:00 – 18:00 1 Shed Demonstration “SCENTINEL: Safeguarding Olfactory Landscapes in a Changing World” by Bruno Rodrigues
A demonstration presenting the SCENTINEL project focused on documenting and preserving olfactory environments. It introduces ethnographic methods for scent identification, alongside procedures for aroma capture and reproduction. The session explores how changing environments can be recorded and translated into sensory archives, highlighting approaches to safeguarding disappearing olfactory landscapes. Instagram: brunoleite8
18:00 – 19:00 1 Shed Masterclass “Afarsemon — an ancient fragrance once used in sacred rituals in the region of Israel” by Lilia Chak
An online masterclass exploring the use of scent in artistic practice through the research project on afarsemon, an ancient fragrance used in sacred rituals in the region of Israel. The session examines the reconstruction of ancient olfactory landscapes through archaeology, botany, and contemporary art practice. While no physical scent is presented, the lecture engages participants through narrative, visual material, and sensory imagination, reflecting on both the material and conceptual dimensions of scent in art. Instagram: @liliachak
18:00 – 19:00 Exhibition hall “Scent Archive”
Reading “Do you remember what it smelled like back then?” by Franzi Goralski up
A reading from an ongoing research series exploring speculative olfactory histories of queer spaces. This session traces the pool parties of the Sirens—one of the oldest women’s motorcycle clubs in New York—and their gatherings at Cave Canum in the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on archival material, visual works, and composed scent references, the reading constructs a sensory framework for imagining lost and shifting spatial histories through smell, memory, and collective imagination. Instagram: @franziska_goralski
19:00 – 20:00 Exhibition hall “Scent Archive”
Performance “Nice to Sniff You (맡나서반가워요)” by Hyeeun Kwak
A performance and installation exploring scent as a form of greeting and relation in urban life. Hands carrying distinct body scents come into contact, both consciously and unconsciously. The subway handle is approached as a site where these olfactory traces accumulate and intersect. Worn clothes from Latvia and Korea are used as materials, each holding intimate traces of individual bodies shaped by different environments and habits. Through hand-sewing and Hapjang knots, these clothes are reconstructed into handle-like forms, binding together traces of different bodies. The performance unfolds through collective holding and the live singing of Jindo Arirang, activating a shared sensory situation. Instagram: @olfactoryartist_hyen
19:00 – 20:00 1 Shed Scented Video Dance “NuCarob” by Shuntaro Yoshida
A lecture-performance combining nuka fermentation culture from Japan with carob traditions of the Mediterranean. The work explores fermentation as a temporal and living process where scent, movement, and language circulate and shape perception. Nuka and carob are approached as non-human performers that transform and respond alongside human presence. Through shifting olfactory states and embodied action, the piece reframes choreography as an emergent process generated through relational encounters with the environment. NuCarob is part of the Environmental Turn of Dance (ETD) project in Malta. The ETD project is funded by the European Union through the HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-TALENTS- 02-01–ERA Fellowships programme (Grant Agreement No. 101180719). Instagram: @shuntaroyoshida
20:00 – 21:00 3 Office Workshop “Rosemary’s Anarchiving” by Polina Golovátina-Mora & Bridget Sheridan
A co-laborative workshop exploring “anarchiving” as an active, sensory practice of remembering and knowledge-making. Through the presence of rosemary as an agent of stimulation and affect, participants engage with memory beyond passive storage. The session approaches sensing as a form of co-creation, where hearing, perception, and embodied experience generate new ways of relating to knowledge, presence, and collective remembrance. Instagram: @bsheridan.walkingart
20:00 – 21:00 1 Shed Scented Video Dance by KITAPOLENG BALI
A performative work engaging with mythologies of the goddess Durga within Indonesian cultural traditions, where female figures oscillate between reverence, transformation, and contested power. The piece reflects on shifting representations of the feminine—from divine protector to feared force—within layered historical and mythological narratives. Through scent, image, and movement, the work evokes embodied memory and inner transformation, positioning Durga as both cultural symbol and internal presence. Instagram: @kitapolengbali
21:00 – 22:00 2 Performance space Performance “KNOT YET” by Alexandre Levi
A butoh performance exploring how the future is sensed through uncertainty and chance, inhabiting the fragile space between what has ended and what has not yet begun. A capsule dispenser bound in rope forms a network of knots, where tension and release shape the unfolding of possible futures. The scents accompany the experience, extending perception beyond the visual dimension and intertwining smell, gesture, and chance throughout the work. Instagram: @alexparistokyo
May 9:
Topic: Through the Fog of Uncertainty
11:00 – 11:40 1 Shed Lecture “Instruments of Synesthesia: Translating Insect Olfaction into Human Perception” by Anna Laura Erdei
A lecture exploring olfaction as a process of translation, where chemical signals are transformed into perceivable forms through scientific and artistic means. Drawing on research in chemical ecology, it examines how non-human sensory worlds can be made accessible to human perception.The session connects olfactory science with multisensory and performative approaches, reflecting on how sensory environments are shaped in the Anthropocene and how they can be re-experienced through embodied and emotional engagement. Instagram: @anna.tardigrada
12:00 – 13:00 RAA SPACE Music Performance “AromaPiano” by Yuliya Untilova & Marynka
An interdisciplinary performance combining piano music and live scent composition. Original piano works, inspired by impressionist and modal traditions, are paired with specially created fragrances that unfold in dialogue with the music. Presented as a reclining concert, the work invites participants into a state of relaxation and heightened perception, where sound, scent, and touch merge into an intimate and immersive environment. Instagram: @aromapiano.nl
12:00 – 13:00 2 Performance space Performance “Tango in the Ivy” by Ieva Dzintare, Rūta Kalmuka & Ojārs Apinis
A wild garden –
a refuge that grows untamed.
Bitter greens on the tongue,
scent sinking into the skin.
Movement tangles, loosens, finds its way.
A tango with the ivy.
Live soundscape improvised by Ojārs Apinis.
Instagram: @dzintareieva
13:00 – 14:00 Exhibition Hall “Through the Fog of Uncertainty”
Performance “BIJUMA BIJĪBA / Reverence of Time” by Viola Karule, Inta Paula Briņķe & Arta Ozola-Jaunarāja
A multisensory performance exploring time, transformation, and stillness through sound, textile, and scent. At the center of the space, a large suspended textile form emerges from a point into expanding structure, surrounded by shifting aromatic environments of varying intensity. An original flute composition by Inta Paula Briņķe guides the audience between the visible and invisible, creating an immersive atmosphere where time dissolves into continuous becoming. Instagram: @viola_karule.art, @artaozolajaunaraja, @inta.zelts
14:00 – 15:00 2 Performance space Scented Music Performance “Cheap Tea” by Normal Babyy
A performance blending sound, scent, and ritual through the everyday act of drinking cheap tea. Positioned between ceremony and commodity, the work reflects on how ritual, mindfulness, and consumption intersect within contemporary life. Drawing on themes of nostalgia, accessibility, and economic reality, the piece transforms a familiar, low-cost material into a sensory and performative experience, inviting reflection on value, habit, and collective memory. Instagram: @normalbabyy_official
13:00 – 15:00 Hall 3 Experience “From the Dunes to the Forest” by Darta Mutule
An interdisciplinary sensory experience combining olfactory art, somatic movement, and eco-somatic practices. Scent functions as an active catalyst for perception, guiding movement, memory, and embodied responses in relation to landscape. Drawing on forest therapy, Body-Mind Centering® (BMC®), and contact improvisation, the work explores the relationship between body and environment as a spatial and sensory continuum. Instagram: @darta.mutule
15:00 – 16:00 1 Shed Lecture / Technological Demonstration “Foundations of Aromagraphy with Demonstration of Scent Camera as Multisensory Recorder” by Sandris Mūriņš, Ilmārs Blumbergs and Arnolds Ariņš
A lecture and technological demonstration introducing aromagraphy as an emerging art form and technology focused on capturing, storing, and releasing odors. The session presents the Scent Camera as an experimental multisensory recording device for creating olfactive experiences. Through conceptual introduction and live demonstration, the session explores scent as a medium for recording, transmission, and multisensory artistic practice. Instagram: @sandrismurins
15:00 – 16:00 3 Office Workshop “Flamenco: Rhythm in Motion, Scent in Space” by Arta Ozola-Jaunarāja
A masterclass combining flamenco movement, body percussion, and rhythm techniques in an accessible format for participants of all levels. The session is complemented by a specially created olfactory environment, forming a multisensory experience where movement and scent interact. Participants explore basic flamenco steps, posture, simple body percussion patterns, and rhythm awareness exercises, while investigating how scent can influence perception of movement and presence in space. Instagram: @artaozolajaunaraja
16:00 – 17:00 2 Performance space Pole performance “MĒS ESAM ZEME / WE ARE EARTH” by Roberta Tukiša & Patrīcija Kronberga, scents added by Tonijs Strods
An ecofeminist pole performance exploring ecological interconnectedness, toxicity, and transformation through movement, scent, and taste. Structured as a ritualistic sensory experience, the work evokes the entanglement of human and more-than-human existence. Through embodied imagery and multisensory elements, the performance reflects on destruction, regeneration, and the fragile continuities of life within a changing Earth. Instagram: @robertacataryna, @patricija.kronberga
16:00 – 17:00 Exhibition Hall “Scent Archive”
Experience during Tea House “A Scented Non-Site: A Coastal Natural Park” by Rosa Almeida
A multisensory tea house experience inspired by the Costa Vicentina Natural Park in southern Portugal. Through scent, sound, sculpture, tea, and dried fruits, the work evokes the sensory atmosphere of a distant landscape, where sea breeze, wild botanicals, and insect soundscapes intertwine. Drawing from ideas of site and non-site, the experience brings fragments of place into the festival setting, inviting participants into an intimate encounter with landscape through olfactory, gustatory, and spatial perception. Instagram: @atelierosaalmeida
17:00 – 18:00 2 Performance space Music Performance “Sensitise” by Erik Fooladi & Andreas Barth
A multisensory performance exploring reciprocal relationships between scent and music through planned and improvised elements. Combining aroma jockeying, live sound, loops, samples, and acoustic instruments, the work unfolds as a dialogue between olfactory and sonic composition. The performance invites audiences into an evolving sensory experience where smell, sound, and occasional taste intersect. Instagram: @erikfooladi, @farmorhuset_musikk
17:00 – 18:00 Exhibition Hall “Through the Fog of Uncertainty”
Performance “In the wheel” by Kaú Lim
The wheel is the seasons, fate, the tides, the return of time, the collective. We are all within it. “In the wheel” is a ritual, durational performance. Through scent, the butoh body, and sound, this work constructs a temporary time-space. The incense used is grounded in the traditional joss sticks of Taiwanese temples, interwoven with the European soil atmospheres. Through slow and arrhythmic tremors, the artist joins those present in tending to and questioning the insecurity and direction of our time. Instagram: @kau.chiayu.lim
18:00 – 19:00 1 Shed Keynote Lecture “Smell Loss” by Rachel Herz
A keynote lecture exploring smell loss and its causes, ranging from physical and neurological conditions to environmental factors. The session examines how changes in olfactory perception impact memory, emotion, and everyday experience. Drawing on scientific research, the lecture highlights the broader significance of smell and its loss for understanding human perception and sensory life. Instagram: @rachel_herz_author
19:00 – 20:00 Exhibition Hall “Through the Fog of Uncertainty”
Performance “Peeling Earth” by Butō Lab
A sensory butoh performance unfolding as a ritual of endurance, care, and transformation. Clad in fragile lace dresses, female performers inhabit a dark basement, engaged in the repetitive act of peeling potatoes. As they work, they begin to tell stories of the women in their lineage, weaving threads of personal and collective memory. The work moves through cycles of nourishment, scarcity, and renewal. Instagram: @buto.lab
19:00 – 21:00 3 Office Workshop “Embodied Ways of Being with Uncertainty” co-led by Dominique & Daphne
A playful workshop in which participants work in pairs to create a multisensory experience for one another. The process explores embodiment, trust, and relationality through sensory interaction using scent, touch, and sound. Participants are invited to allow themselves to be guided by their partner through states of uncertainty and heightened perception, engaging with presence as a shared and shifting experience. Central to the workshop is the temporary closing of the visual sense, opening instead to an attunement to the relational field created between each pair and the sensory artefacts provided. The workshop is grounded in somatic awareness, consent, and mutual care. Following the experiential phase, each partner is offered paper and drawing materials to translate their embodied sensory experience onto the page, beginning to develop a vocabulary for sensory experience. Participants will be invited to lie down, so please bring a blanket if you can. Instagram: @dominiquerivoal @djdpix_yogalife
20:00 – 21:00 2 Performance space Music Performance “Happy Mill” (composed by Dmitri Kourliandski) by Ēvalds Lazarevičs
A performance in which sound is generated through the use of food as a compositional material. The work transforms eating into a sonic process, where consumption becomes both action and critique. Engaging with themes of overconsumption and consumer culture, the piece reflects on the material and symbolic dimensions of food within contemporary society. Instagram: @dmitrikourliandski, @evald.lazarevich
21:00 – 3:00 2 Performance space DJ Night organized by Artūrs Voinovs
A DJ night where music and aroma jockeying are combined into a shared, danceable multisensory experience. DJs and an aroma jockey work in dialogue, layering sound and scent to create a continuous atmosphere of rhythm and perception. The event transforms the space into an immersive party environment where music and fragrance unfold together as one evolving sensory composition. Instagram: archio_
May 10: Closing day of Festival
10:00 – 12:00 Meeting in 1 Shed
Scent Walk “Spring, Riga” by Solvita Lazdāne
A multisensory walking experience through Riga, where scent becomes a narrative language shaping perception of place. Participants are invited to slow down and engage with shifting olfactory impressions connected to memory, body, and environment. The walk transforms the city into a sensory map, where personal and collective associations emerge through smell, reflection, and imagination. Instagram: @solvita.lazdane
11:00 – 12:00 1 Shed
Marikas Rozenbergas lekcija “Vai smaržas var uzskatīt par mākslu? Iepazīstieties: mākslinieciskā parfimērija!”
Līdz ar parfimērijas demokratizāciju, kas padara zināšanas un materiālus pieejamus arvien lielākam interesentu lokam, pieaug to cilvēku skaits, kas vēlas izteikt sevi, veidojot smaržas un radot savus konceptuālus zīmolus. Lekcija iepazīstinās ar dažiem šādiem zīmoliem un to aromātiem. Instagram: @followzenose
12:00 – 13:00 2 Performance space Scented Video dance “A ceremony for the burnt land” by Pasiphae Kythera
This video documents a dance performance created in the burned landscape of Kythera, Greece, with four dancers and one musician. Through Butoh, the body becomes a site of transformation, not expressing but undergoing the landscape. Filmed in the scorched terrain near Myrtidia, the work unfolds as a quiet ritual. Ash, soil, and silence shape the movement, while live music creates an improvisational dialogue between body and environment. The dancers do not represent the landscape. They enter it. Through breath, stillness, and minimal gesture, the body becomes a carrier of memory, tracing a passage between loss and regeneration. Choreography and Performance: Eliza Soroga, Marianna Tsagkaraki, Georgia Tseri, Iphigenia Vogiatzaki. Music: Thodoris Ziarkas. Instagram: @pasiphae_kythera
Scented Video Dance “NuCarob” by Shuntaro Yoshida
A lecture-performance combining nuka fermentation culture from Japan with carob traditions of the Mediterranean. The work explores fermentation as a temporal and living process where scent, movement, and language circulate and shape perception. Nuka and carob are approached as non-human performers that transform and respond alongside human presence. Through shifting olfactory states and embodied action, the piece reframes choreography as an emergent process generated through relational encounters with the environment. NuCarob is part of the Environmental Turn of Dance (ETD) project in Malta. The ETD project is funded by the European Union through the HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-TALENTS- 02-01–ERA Fellowships programme (Grant Agreement No. 101180719). Instagram: @shuntaroyoshida
12:00 – 13:00 Exhibition hall “Through the Fog of Uncertainty”
Performance “so, life gave me lemons” by Katerina Dementeva
A playful and participatory performance exploring the well-known proverb through collective action. Together with the audience, a poem is composed, reflecting on how meaning and response are shaped in shared creative processes. The work is part of an ongoing artistic research into delight, positive affect, and interactive writing, where authorship is distributed and meaning emerges through collaboration and engagement.Instagram: @katerina_dementeva_
13:00 – 14:00 1 Shed Performance “Dzira” by Velta Gūtmane
A participatory performance exploring ritual, cleansing, and transformation through the symbolic act of washing in “dzira.” The work unfolds as a shared sensory action involving audience participation, where boundaries between performer and viewer become fluid. Instagram: @velta_g
13:00 – 14:00 2 Performance space Scented Video Dance by KITAPOLENG BALI
A performative work engaging with mythologies of the goddess Durga within Indonesian cultural traditions, where female figures oscillate between reverence, transformation, and contested power. The piece reflects on shifting representations of the feminine—from divine protector to feared force—within layered historical and mythological narratives. Through scent, image, and movement, the work evokes embodied memory and inner transformation, positioning Durga as both cultural symbol and internal presence.
Instagram: @kitapolengbali
14:00 – 16:00 2 Performance space Workshop “Embodied Ways of Being with Uncertainty” co-led by Dominique & Daphne
A fun workshop where participants work in pairs to create a multisensory experience for one another. The process explores embodiment, trust and relationality through sensory interaction using scent, touch and sound. Participants are invited to allow themselves to be guided by their partner through states of uncertainty and heightened perception, engaging with presence as a shared and shifting experience.
Central to the workshop is the temporary closing of the overactive visual sense, opening instead to an attunement with the kinaesthetic and relational field created between the pair. The workshop is grounded in somatic awareness, consent and mutual care.
Following the experiential phase, each partner is offered paper and drawing materials to translate their embodied sensory experience onto the page and begin to develop a vocabulary for sensory experience. Participants will be invited to lie down, so please bring a blanket if you can.
Instagram: @dominiquerivoal
13:00 – 14:00 Meeting in 1 Shed Performance “Medium spicy” by Anna Vilāne & Krišjānis Stikāns
Medium Spicy is an immersive performance exploring the cultural ambiguity of ordering a kebab in Latvia, where the requested spice level often yields unpredictable results. Using this everyday interaction as a metaphor for trust and translation, the work examines how meaning shifts when language and habit fail to align. Performers inhabit this “in-between” state through gestures that oscillate between comfort and risk, restraint and excess. Ultimately, the audience is invited to embrace uncertainty, recognizing ambiguity as a space that is both unsettling and subtly humorous. Instagram: @ejamsaunda, @dc.lx.vi
14:00 – 15:00 3 Office Performance “Alfa for Courage” by Mailo Mēness
A live olfactory performance in which a bespoke blend of essential oils is composed in real time by the artist’s drag alter ego, Emmanuels Lampa. The fragrance is built as a ritual of self-preparation, drawing on oils associated with confidence, focus, and physiological activation. Through scent, embodiment, and performative gesture, the work reflects on the construction of confidence and dominant masculinities, playfully reworking the archetype of the “alpha.” It invites the audience to experience gender, power, and suggestion through inhalation and sensory perception. Instagram: @sputnikflieshigh
15:00 – 16:00 Exhibition hall “Through the Fog of Uncertainty”
Performance “elegy of the lilac” by Maria Miguel Pratas & Sille Kima
A multisensory music experience unfolding as a poetic reflection on memory, perception, and shifting states of reality. It evokes fragile impressions of springtime landscapes, where sound becomes intertwined with scent-like atmospheres and sensory memory. The work explores in-between states of feeling and perception, where nostalgia, imagination, and lived experience merge into a fluid sensory space. Instagram: @mariamiguelpratas, @silleki
16:00 – 17:00 1 Shed Announcement of “Scent + ART Festival 2027” by Sandris Mūriņš
A public announcement introducing the upcoming edition of Scent + ART Festival 2027. The session presents the festival dates, location, and open call themes, offering an overview of the next edition’s focus and structure. It also outlines initial plans for the festival’s development and future direction. Instagram: @sandrismurins
Odorbet 
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