Scents of the City is a collection of small samples and patterns from a wide range of the public spaces in a city; it is the result of an obsession of many years, an obsession to collect what visually denotes the flavour of a city which is so difficult to describe with words.
All too often the smells and flavours of a city are simple, sad, monotonous or uniform; then again they can be overwhelming like a cheap perfume, and in spite of this—or maybe because of it— they are hardly noticed. But sometimes there will be a surprising freshness, a breeze bearing the merest trace of a scent which captivates our senses and turns everyday banality into poetry. The ceaseless search for such fleeting impressions changes the perception, and thus those seemingly dull spots, those non-places of a city which normally receive so little attention gradually turn into spaces full of wonder. These everyday discoveries were collected over a long time and then categorized according to their relationship with each other. The wide range of cities from which the examples were taken is reflected in the use of different languages. Without claiming completeness, this collection represents a pictorial archive documenting two very different kinds of expeditions through large and small cities of the world.

『Scents of the City』は、とある都市の広範囲にわたる公共空間から小さなサンプルやパターンを集積したものである。言葉で言い表すのも難しいような「都市の香り」というものを視覚的に象徴するものを集める、という数年来の執念の結末である。
よくある都市の匂いや香りは、シンプルで悲しく、単調でむらがないものであるから、安っぽい香水のように圧倒的なものとなってしまいがちである。それにもかかわらずーあるいはそうだからかもしれないがー、なかなかその匂いに気付くことはない。しかし時には思いがけない新鮮なものとなるかもしれない。例えば、そよ風が香りをあとに残し、我々の感性を魅了したり、日常の凡庸さを詩の世界のように変化させるようなことがあるかもしれない。このようなつかの間の感動を追い求める常日頃からの注意が認識を変える。一見取るに足りない場所や、普段なら注意をひかないような都市の何てことのない場所も、徐々に驚きに満ちた空間へと変わる。
close