DELTE VANDE Biennale “Tang : Transformationer” (Brønshøj VandTårnet – Copenhagen)
- Emmanuel Martini DC
- May 26
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 5
I’m delighted to share my contribution to Tang: Transformationer, an immersive exhibition unfolding inside the atmospheric Brønshøj Water Tower in Copenhagen. Curated by Lawrence Ebelle (Curated Works) as part of this year’s Delte Vande program, the exhibition explores the poetic and transformative qualities of seaweed, as material, metaphor, and life form.
As a perfumer, I was invited to contribute a bespoke scent to the exhibition, one that could interpret seaweed not literally, but sensorially. What emerged is an olfactory installation designed to mirror the quiet power of seaweed’s transformation: from raw nature to abstract, living fragrance.
Crafted around seaweed absolute (Fucus vesiculosus), the scent reveals a complex, oceanic signature. It opens with salted greenness, the coolness of sea air, and a whisper of tide, supported by molecules like Iso E Super, Cetalox, and dimethyl sulfide. Notes of green tea ketone, florhydral, and cyclamen aldehyde bring aquatic transparency, while vetiveryl acetate, evernyl, and hay absolute ground the composition in earthy, quiet warmth. It’s not a perfume of the beach, but of the life beneath it, filtered light, briny stillness, and the subtle pulse of the ocean floor.
As scent critic Clara Muller reflects in “An Overview of Olfactory Art / Panorama de l’art olfactif” (Nez, La revue olfactive n°4, 2018): « L’art peut-il s’appréhender par le nez ? L’artiste peut-il s’exprimer par l’odeur ? » “Can art be perceived through the nose? Can the artist express through scent?” These questions lie at the heart of this installation. Rather than imitating nature, the fragrance suggests it, much like an abstract painting, inviting the nose to act not only as a sensor of pleasure, but as a channel for memory, imagination, and understanding.
he installation unfolds in two parts:
A series of glass jars containing different dried seaweed species, offering an intimate, hands-on olfactory encounter with seaweed in its raw form;
And the diffusion of the final fragrance, an abstract reinterpretation where seaweed becomes an atmospheric and conceptual note.
This fragrance forms part of a larger sensory installation, presented alongside the works of three wonderful artists: Marianne Johnstad-Møller, Kirstine Autzen, and Alberte Holmø Bojesen. Each of us has worked with seaweed in our own way, whether through photography, textile, moving image, or scent, shaping a space that invites the audience into tactile, reflective encounter.
Together, we’ve created a living environment inside the tower, a place of quiet intensity where scent, sound, structure, and story converge. Through shared meals, talks, and workshops curated during the exhibition period, visitors are invited to deepen their experience of this unique, organism-inspired world.
A heartfelt thank you to the entire team, and to Brønshøj Vandtårn, for making space for this kind of slow, sensory storytelling.
DELTE VANDE was supported by the Statens Kunstfond – Forening Brønshøj Vandtårn – Københavns Kommune – Beckett Fonden – Jorck’s FOND – Poul Johansen Fonden – Brønshøj-Husum Lokaludvalg – Grosserer L.F. Foghts Fond – Finn Tofte Almenvelgørende Fond
Contributors:
Art: Marianne Johnstad-Møller, Kirstine Autzen, Alberte Holmø Bojesen, Helene Johanne Christensen, Veronica Civa
Research for olfaction : Clara Muller
Curated dinner: Højborg + Kofoed
Curator: Lawrence Ebelle (Curated Works)
Comments