Scent conjures up images, tells stories and stimulates associations. Because these images are informed by individual biographies and sensibilities they may vary greatly from person to person, or hardly at all. In this respect, fragrance serves as a key to exploring immaterial processes. To engage in a discourse on perfume we need to rely on language or to create pictures that communicate our associations.
This is where ODE comes in, giving space to associative images designed to reflect on fragrance aesthetically and thematically. It is also a forum to honor the cultural treasure that is perfume. ODE is a discourse on the ambivalence between fragrance as something immaterial and impalpable and its concrete representation. For centuries, artistic attempts have been made to give visual expression to fragrance, from allegorical portrayals of the olfactory sense to the symbolic use of floral and plant images. The goal of ODE is to communicate the experience of fragrance visually and to explore the idea of association and inspiration.