During my internship at Mediamatic, where I worked in the Aroma Lab my boyfriend at the time suddenly passed away.
In 2015 I met Jo through a language exchange website, we started chatting a lot and after a while we fell in love. The problem was he lived in Canada, while I lived in the Netherlands. Before I even met him in real life I asked him to send me a worn t-shirt, so I could smell his body odor before even having met, so when he suddenly passed away last year I decided after some time to try and deal with my grief in a creative way.
I have memories of him strongly connected through scent, I didn't get to see him so often since we lived so far away so memories and talking over the phone were all I had. So the project is a timeline of our relationship, memories told through scents. Scents like His own body odor I tried to recreate, our first meeting when I smelled rotten chicken in his apartment, our favorite drinks and date nights, but also the way the hospital smelled. the smell of sickness and grief after having said goodbye.
Steffie tells her story through scents, since scent is a a very important tool for her to connect to her memories. Different odors are linked to her personal memories, like the smell of a loved one who has passed away, a fireworks show, popcorn smothered in butter, rotten chicken and the smell of clean hospital floors.
These personal memories are translated into several scent ‘’perfumes’’ that you can smell in a timeline order, that way your nose will pull you along into her world and you’ll be able to experience her story.
