In the course of a single day, we breathe in and out around 24,000 times. These breaths carry crucial information we don’t consciously notice – invisible messages to the brain that immediately trigger emotions and memories. For the Norwegian artist and smell researcher Sissel Tolaas, smell is an important and often overseen tool of communication.

RE______________  by Sissel Tolaas at Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo covered a broad range of works from Tolaas’ long career, including a selection of her early installations and works on paper, together with a comprehensive presentation of her later works on smell.

In the show, Tolaas took the idea of a ‘well-ventilated interior’ to the extreme by turning the outside walls of the Renzo Piano-designed building inwards and piping the sea air from outside directly into the gallery. Replicating the wind and smell from outside, air was blown onto fluttering curtains made from Kvadrat’s Dive textile that rippled like the surface of the ocean. As a storm approached the shore, the approaching weather could be seen and felt inside too.