Olfactorium
Dreieich, 2000

This installation was part of the symposium "Traces of Nature" and consisted of a spiral with test tubes containing collected water from the local streams. In the interior of a transparent room the equipment for a water-distillation can be found. In this chemical equipment water and wild camomile flowers were brought to boil. These were transformed into a blue concentrate (camomile is the only flower that yields blue etheric oil in the process of distillation). It was fascinating that these minute blue drops - which have been distilled from the camomile flowers, contain the same information of the plant than the flowers themselves - yet the optical appearance and smell are being perceived in a different manner.

Another part of the installation was an olfactory object "Olfactorium" of seven aluminum tubes, all interwoven, in the shape of a Gordian knot. From glass filters, which were all filled with perfume, periodically tiny amounts of perfume were dripping into the tubes, which were connected to ventilators. Seven perfumes were distributed into different directions of the room.