curated by Маргарита Кудрина Olaf Breuning, Nissa Nishikawa, Yeka Haski, Brooke Stamp, Philipp Weber, Voin de Voin, 1000 Names Initiated and organised by: Margarita Kudrina Performance by : Georgi Tomov Georgiev on the opening night (Bulgarian version below) Æther is glad to bring to you a very special project, in which your senses will be stimulated in order to experience art in a new proposition. From US to YOU was conceived as an ongoing digital journal and olfactive study by Folie À Plusieurs that archives the thoughts, reflections and madness of many individuals across a wide range of creative disciplines during the period of 2013, 2014 and 2015. The Folie À Plusieurs website functioned as a digital journal and workshop providing an online gallery experience (visuals) that resulted in an offline olfactive experience (fragrance). For the digital journal, each month an artist was invited to submit personal images, writings, photos, music or videos that represent their feelings, ideas or thoughts that they experience over the course of a month. At the end of the month the contributing artists’ journal was read by a renowned perfumer and then translated into olfactory works. This exhibition showcases 7 out of 24 artists that were chosen to participate in this program. Their practice focuses on performance (Voin de Voin, Nissa Nishikawa), illustration (Yeka Haski), design (Philipp Weber), photography, sculpture, video (Olaf Breuning), music (1000 Names) and dance (Brooke Stamp). Their contemporary practice was our point of interest that led the foundation of our collaboration and sparked curiosity to see beyond their artworks and dig deep into their private lives. Like any art discipline, the creation of a scent is the result of hard work, experimentation and innovation. We selected independant perfumers such as Antoine Lie, Jean Jacques, Jerome Di Marino and Sylvie Fischer, who worked along with the artists and created the scents based on their submissions. The project presents perfume makers as artists, placing their olfactory works on the same level as creations of art, literature, music and dance and celebrates fragrance as a true artistic medium. The aim of this interdisciplinary collaboration was to translate the visual into the medium of scent and extend the viewer‘s experience of the art practice and time that lies beneath it. It functions as a time machine that can bring the viewer closer to a period of time not only relevenat to the artists, but to the viewer himself. The scent has a particular sturcututre, designed to convey a certain feeling that reflects a certain moment in the life of an artist. It can be compared to a musical chord, whereby scents are composed of three harmonic “notes.” The “top note” is the first impression of the scent and is the most aggressive, the “middle note” is the body of the scent, and the “base note” lingers after the other notes dissipate, giving the fragrance a depth and solidity. It speaks in an unique way to every individual triggering memories that lie deep in the subconsciousness. Like any kind of artwork that resonates within someone‘s mind, body and spirit, the scent evolves over time, takes one on a journey of his own until it fades. Peeping through the hole, we look into a fraction of the life of an artist, but we must not only see it, we must smell it too. With the same ambitions and functions of any international library, the Folie À Plusieurs Olfactive Library was a collection of thoughts, stories and ideas of historical and creative significance. By documenting and preserving the olfactive works of the contributing artists and perfumers our intention was to create a permanent archive of scents that reflect a period in an artist‘s life. The viewer is encouraged to go through the printed diaries presented alongside the scents. The submitted content and interviews with the artsists and perfumers are on display and are here to guide the viewer when revisiting a specific period of life by way of scent.