The Call of Scents

«The world consists of a dizzying movement of scents». People, animals, plants, things, memories — everything forms an olfactory ornament that passes through our lives and connects them to one another. In her new text (2024), Japanese writer Ryoko Sekiguchi opens for us a diary of scents — the stories of several women from different countries and eras, told through the prism of their olfactory impressions. The novellas alternate with quotes from books and reflections on the semiotic role of scents, questions about the properties and possibilities of fragrant molecules: what does a mystery smell like? Is there a scent of shadows? And of goodbyes? Will we find the scents of those we once knew and loved? Sekiguchi considers scent not only as «an extension of presence», but also as a means of cognition that can disrupt our habitual relationships with time and space.