SCENT AS PRESENCE
A sensory experience exploring the intimate relationship between smell, memory and identity, from historical olfactory jewellery and personal scent objects to contemporary research into emotion and wellbeing.
About the Event
What if a scent could bring a memory into the present?
Led by art historian and olfactory researcher Caro Verbeek, Scent as Presence explores the intimate relationship between smell, memory, identity and everyday life.
Beginning with the historical culture of olfactory jewellery, participants will encounter selected scented jewellery, vinaigrettes and intimate objects conceived to carry fragrance close to the body. Worn, touched, opened and smelled throughout the day, these objects existed between ornament, intimate container, personal ritual, protection and vehicle for memory.
Through close looking and smelling, historical objects enter into dialogue with the Fondazione’s olfactory pathway: a series of scent stations developed with IFF, featuring fragrances created by perfumers Marcelo Zapata and Eleonora Drago and presented through olfactory sculptures by artist Juli About. Together, they connect historical practices of wearing and carrying scent with contemporary research into olfaction, emotion, identity and wellbeing.
At the centre of the experience is an understanding of memory as something active within the present. Through smell, what is absent can acquire an unexpected physical immediacy: memory becomes atmosphere, sensation and presence.
Developed within the Fondazione’s wider research into olfaction, emotional heritage and multisensory experience, Scent as Presence extends the sensory research of La Nota Mancante and its ongoing dialogue with Caro Verbeek and IFF
About Caro Verbeek
Caro Verbeek is an art historian and olfactory researcher specialising in the sensory history of art, with particular attention to olfaction. Her work investigates smell as a historical, cultural and aesthetic medium, and the ways in which sensory experience can transform our understanding of art and material culture.
Her interdisciplinary practice brings together art history, material culture and sensory research, exploring how smell shapes perception, memory and our relationship with the past. Her research has reached international audiences through her TEDx talk, The Historical Significance of Smell, dedicated to the role of scent in experiencing and understanding history.
At Fondazione Maddalena Di Giacomo, Verbeek’s research enters into dialogue with the Fondazione’s ongoing investigation into olfaction, memory, emotional heritage and multisensory experience.
Event Information
Date: Wednesday, 14 October 2026
Location: Fondazione Maddalena Di Giacomo, Palazzo Valier, San Polo 1022, Venice
Admission: €70
Admission includes: Admission to the Fondazione and the complete guided sensory experience
Capacity: Limited
Booking: Reservation required
Salon de la Memoire
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