Racism has had an olfactory side for a long time. For example, Immanuel Kant submitted that there was a direct connection between body odour and skin colour. And even in the present day, people report complaints, conflict, and discrimination due to ‘unpleasant’ and ‘overly strong’ odours. But as relevant as smells are in the context of racism, ritual and spiritual meanings and applications of scents exist in various cultures as well. It is this point of racist debasement on the one hand and the (also culturally) healing power of smells on the other that the performance installation/lecture performance Smells of Racism picks up.

During the durational performance, visitors are invited to explore smells and the artists’ research, to see short performances, to move along with certain smells during mini workshops, and to attend the final lecture performance. 

Schedule Smells of Racism

Smells of Racism I – Durational Open Space

Dialogues and workshops with Theresa Seraphin and Sandra Chatterjee
Soundscape Kanishka Sarkar

The durational installation is structured in three cycles. Each cycle contains a movement workshop, a performance and space for dialogue.

Smells of Racism II – Lecture performance
5:00–6:45 pm
Featuring Arko Mukhaerjee / Kanishka Sarkar / Sandra Chatterjee

Smells of Racism is a project by Sandra Chatterjee that features Cana Bilir-Meier, Constanze Knapp, Arko Mukhaerjee, Suzette Sagisi, Kanishka Sarkar, Theresa Seraphin, Jaskaran Singh Anand, Duduzile Voigts, Friedrich Günther, Antonia Grahmann as well as Avirup Basu, Amit Biswas & team and Goopy Bagha Productions Ltd. Loosely connected in various constellations, Sandra Chatterjee and friends have been doing work on smells and their political dimension since 2019. Sandra Chatterjee, choreographer, scientist, and co-organiser of the platform CHAKKARs – Moving Intervention, has a profound interest in close audience interaction and tries to involve senses we do not usually work with, such as smell. From 2020 to 2022, Chatterjee was part of the selection by the international exchange and production platform FREISCHWIMMEN.