Could smell be the next frontier in the art world? Two exhibitions in Germany are showing how the sense of smell is transforming the creation, perception, and experience of art. The Kunstpalast Düsseldorf’s “The Power of Scents” installation perfectly illustrates this evolution. Photo: Anne Orthen. By Louisa Elderton on December 28, 2025.
Reflect on your favorite fragrances. How easily can you describe them? While they can evoke vivid memories and emotions, articulating their complexities can be challenging. As a writer fascinated by language’s ability to convey intricate thoughts and feelings, I find describing scents particularly elusive. During my master’s thesis on the role of smell in contemporary art and its interaction with museums, I explored this intriguing yet “wacky” subject, as my professor called it. The sensory journey led me to artists like Ernesto Neto with his aromatic spice installations, Mike Kelley with his synthetic pine scents, and Oswaldo Maciá with his combined sound and smell creations. Yet, capturing these scents in words often felt like trying to hold onto air.
Since the early 1990s, Norwegian artist Sissel Tolaas has been pioneering the use of scents as a communicative medium. She has amassed over 15,000 smell molecules in her Berlin-based olfactory library and scent laboratory, SMELL RE_searchLab. Tolaas has even developed a unique terminology for describing scents, creating a language known as NASALO. Rather than relying on standard nomenclatures, her language articulates previously unnamed scent notes and compounds. As she explained to Flash Art in 2023, “Linguistics plays a role in understanding how smells are described and communicated. Language can be employed to articulate and communicate olfactory experiences.” She started her exploration of the potential of smell in art over twenty years ago with her Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain installation, SIRAP mon amour, where she created terms like “Pikon” and “puuhs” to describe the olfactory essence of Paris.
The scent of a gallery is never neutral—every space has its own distinct aroma, shaped by the materials artists use. Consider the sharp chemical smell of Richard Wilson’s 20:50 engine oil installation or the decaying floral fragrance of Anya Gallaccio’s preserve ‘beauty’. Even the scent of oil paintings fresh from the studio fills a room with a nutty aroma. Artists frequently use olfactory elements to convey intricate concepts and evoke emotional responses. Historically, 16th-century European cabinets of curiosities encouraged holistic interactions with objects, including smelling and tasting. However, by the 18th century, museums focused on maintaining an imperialist ideology, prioritizing sanitized, distanced observation. This emphasis on preservation limited the incorporation of scents in museums throughout the 20th century. Presently, institutions are increasingly leveraging scent to enhance exhibitions, adding a rich, experiential dimension.
At the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, the ongoing exhibition “The Secret Power of Scents” integrates scent with its permanent collection. A wide range of objects, from medieval busts to modern photographs and furniture, are paired with custom-crafted scents. These aromas are dispersed through diffusers and scent stations, inviting visitors on a sensory journey. “Once we start recognizing scent as cultural information rather than mere decoration, it becomes a medium for interpreting the world in new ways,” exhibition curator Robert Müller-Grünow explained in an email. He believes that using scent as a curatorial tool “opens up different pathways to understanding” and shifts visitors from passive observation to active, embodied comprehension.
Within the museum’s galleries, visitors encounter a diverse array of scents—from spiritual resins and woods to the sweet aroma of Coca-Cola. The standout room, “The Smell of Memory—Scent and Identity in the GDR,” offers an olfactory experience of Communist East Germany, featuring scents like two-stroke engine exhaust, Florena cream, and linoleum cleaners. Having lived in Berlin for a decade, exploring this otherwise inaccessible aspect of history deeply moved me. The exhibition repositions the body as an active participant in interpretation, challenging the long-standing dominance of sight in art appreciation.
The connection between smell and memory stems from the brain’s interaction between the olfactory bulb, the amygdala, and the hippocampus, creating a powerful sensory relay. Andy Warhol captured this link in his Philosophy, explaining how scents evoke memories. Colombian sculptor Delcy Morelos explores this phenomenon in her exhibition “Madre” at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof. Her colossal, soil-based installation is filled with materials like hay and cinnamon, infusing the air with a spicy sweetness that envelops visitors. Positioned alongside Joseph Beuys’s sculptures, Morelos’s work mirrors his themes of creative energy and transformation. “In earth-based practices like Morelos’s, olfaction recalls the physical intimacy of touching soil and being connected to the earth,” curator Catherine Nichols noted. Her installation invites a sensory exploration of complex themes like mourning and renewal.
Morelos challenges traditional museum norms by focusing on corporeal interpretation and broadening the communicative possibilities within the museum space. As Nichols highlighted, “Sensory works like Morelos’s foster conditions for rethinking knowledge and its purpose, aligning with efforts to decolonize museums.”
“The Secret Power of Scents” is on display at Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf until March 8, 2026, and “Delcy Morelos: Madre” can be viewed at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin until January 25, 2026.
