Anna Novakov is a Serbian-American artist, writer and curator whose practice focuses on the transitory modalities of the olfactory, vestimentary and gastronomic arts. As an artist and certified perfumer, Novakov is able to unpack events through a multisensory artistic lens by examining seemingly inconsequential things, such as the smells of outdoor markets and historic recipes. While her creative practice focuses on conceptual perfumery and textile design she is also invested in the role of scent and touch in the construction of personal and collective memories, fragrance as an aspect of Utopian societies and cooking as a socio-political act. The author of dozens of books, articles and exhibition catalogues, Novakov is also a new media curator, focusing on emerging technologies and their impact on sensory perception. She has curated numerous group and individual exhibitions across the United States and Europe. She is Senior Curator at Provisional Art Space (https://www.provisionalart.space/) and editor of Base Camp Zine Press.
Healing Agent, 2022 was included in Portraits in Scent, a group exhibition at Olfactory Art Kellery in NYC. My great-grandmother Marija Stepanovic was a healer. She raised her family in a village outside of Novi Sad, Serbia. From her home, she practiced medicinal cures for a variety of ailments from rheumatism, insomnia, skin wounds, and gastrointestinal diseases. Her primary healing materials, all locally grown and produced, were honey, chamomile and Melissa officinalis – lemon balm. She kept particular varieties, known for their potency in copper containers which themselves were thought to support general wellbeing. This olfactory portrait of Marija, stored in a copper flask, holds a combination of Melissa, chamomile and honey fragrance notes which when sprayed provide a comforting sweet and citrus healing agent.
Inhale - Times Square, New York, 2020. Lightboard Installation. Zaziots.
Inhale - Times Square, New York, 2020. Lightboard Installation. Zaziots.
SITE Santa Fe. Silver Linings - Santa Fe Dreamers Project.
Platform Arts, Belfast, Ireland
Smelling Utopia. Bauhaus Dessau. Scent Installation. October 2019.
Smelling Utopia. Scent Installation. Bauhaus Dessau. October 2019
TRAILING BELGRADE is an olfactory/video installation that taps into the epigenetic smells of Belgrade – a process of conscious and unconscious forgetting. During the course of the Ständige Vertretung intervention, the space is demarcated by a series of glass globes that emit the scents of concrete, leather, tobacco, coffee and baked goods. The looped video captures curators, critics and visitors at the Museum of Contemporary Art Salon in Belgrade describing the smells of their city.
4-6pm
September 18, 2019
Ständige Vertretung
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
TRAILING BELGRADE is an olfactory/video installation that taps into the epigenetic smells of Belgrade – a process of conscious and unconscious forgetting. During the course of the Ständige Vertretung intervention, the space is demarcated by a series of glass globes that emit the scents of concrete, leather, tobacco, coffee and baked goods. The looped video captures curators, critics and visitors at the Museum of Contemporary Art Salon in Belgrade describing the smells of their city.
4-6pm
September 18, 2019
Ständige Vertretung
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
TRAILING BELGRADE is an olfactory/video installation that taps into the epigenetic smells of Belgrade – a process of conscious and unconscious forgetting. During the course of the Ständige Vertretung intervention, the space is demarcated by a series of glass globes that emit the scents of concrete, leather, tobacco, coffee and baked goods. The looped video captures curators, critics and visitors at the Museum of Contemporary Art Salon in Belgrade describing the smells of their city.
4-6pm
September 18, 2019
Ständige Vertretung
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
TRAILING BELGRADE is an olfactory/video installation that taps into the epigenetic smells of Belgrade – a process of conscious and unconscious forgetting. During the course of the Ständige Vertretung intervention, the space is demarcated by a series of glass globes that emit the scents of concrete, leather, tobacco, coffee and baked goods. The looped video captures curators, critics and visitors at the Museum of Contemporary Art Salon in Belgrade describing the smells of their city.
4-6pm
September 18, 2019
Ständige Vertretung
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
Red Leather
An Olfactory Play in One Act
Red Leather is a play by Anna Novakov, formed of the sounds and smells of her childhood in 1960s Belgrade. In a darkened room, audience members experience the live mixing of scents layered upon a pre-recorded monologue that is interspersed with audio clips from Ljubica Maric’s (1909-2003) Cantata Song of Space for Mixed Choir and Orchestra (1956).
Premiere: October 17, 2019
19 uhr
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
Red Leather
An Olfactory Play in One Act
Red Leather is a play by Anna Novakov, formed of the sounds and smells of her childhood in 1960s Belgrade. In a darkened room, audience members experience the live mixing of scents layered upon a pre-recorded monologue that is interspersed with audio clips from Ljubica Maric’s (1909-2003) Cantata Song of Space for Mixed Choir and Orchestra (1956).
Premiere: October 17, 2019
19 uhr
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
Red Leather
An Olfactory Play in One Act
Red Leather is a play by Anna Novakov, formed of the sounds and smells of her childhood in 1960s Belgrade. In a darkened room, audience members experience the live mixing of scents layered upon a pre-recorded monologue that is interspersed with audio clips from Ljubica Maric’s (1909-2003) Cantata Song of Space for Mixed Choir and Orchestra (1956).
Premiere: October 17, 2019
19 uhr
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
Red Leather
An Olfactory Play in One Act
Red Leather is a play by Anna Novakov, formed of the sounds and smells of her childhood in 1960s Belgrade. In a darkened room, audience members experience the live mixing of scents layered upon a pre-recorded monologue that is interspersed with audio clips from Ljubica Maric’s (1909-2003) Cantata Song of Space for Mixed Choir and Orchestra (1956).
Premiere: October 17, 2019
19 uhr
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
Red Leather
An Olfactory Play in One Act
Red Leather is a play by Anna Novakov, formed of the sounds and smells of her childhood in 1960s Belgrade. In a darkened room, audience members experience the live mixing of scents layered upon a pre-recorded monologue that is interspersed with audio clips from Ljubica Maric’s (1909-2003) Cantata Song of Space for Mixed Choir and Orchestra (1956).
Premiere: October 17, 2019
19 uhr
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
Red Leather
An Olfactory Play in One Act
Red Leather is a play by Anna Novakov, formed of the sounds and smells of her childhood in 1960s Belgrade. In a darkened room, audience members experience the live mixing of scents layered upon a pre-recorded monologue that is interspersed with audio clips from Ljubica Maric’s (1909-2003) Cantata Song of Space for Mixed Choir and Orchestra (1956).
Premiere: October 17, 2019
19 uhr
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
The Smell of a World Without Bees, 2019
Olfactory installation with smell of honey
Photograph, Petri dish, dropper, honey absolute, dead bee
The Smell of a World Without Bees, 2019
Olfactory installation with smell of honey
Photograph, Petri dish, dropper, honey absolute, dead bee
Sensory Binding, 2019
Olfactory installation with smell of lavender
Photograph, natural dyes, linen, glass jars, metal clip
Sensory Binding, 2019
Olfactory installation with smell of lavender
Photograph, natural dyes, linen, glass jars, metal clip
TRAILING BELGRADE is an olfactory/video installation that taps into the epigenetic smells of Belgrade – a process of conscious and unconscious forgetting. During the course of the Ständige Vertretung intervention, the space is demarcated by a series of glass globes that emit the scents of concrete, leather, tobacco, coffee and baked goods. The looped video captures curators, critics and visitors at the Museum of Contemporary Art Salon in Belgrade describing the smells of their city.
4-6pm
September 18, 2019
Ständige Vertretung
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstrasse 27
10551 Berlin
The Black Carbon exhibition is a celebration of the life and work of Serbian-American physicist Tihomir (Tica) Novakov (1929-2015). It is also a study of the influence that his environmental aerosol research has had not just on his fellow scientists, but on various contemporary artists who have used his research as an inspiration in their creative practice. The artists in the exhibition are a combination of Serbian and American creatives that reflect Novakov’s dual nationality.
“Bel Canto: Contemporary Artists Explore Opera.” Art Press. April 2019.
https://www.artpress.com/2019/04/20/bel-canto-contemporary-artists-explore-opera/
“Larry Bell: Hocus, Focus and 12.” The Magazine. July 2018. 59.
https://www.themagsantafe.com/larry-bell-hocus-focus-and-12-2/
“Without Boundaries: Visual Conversations.” Art Press, February 2018.
https://www.artpress.com/2018/02/23/without-boundaries-visual-conversations/
“International Taos: Nicolai Fechin and the Taos Society of Artists.” The Magazine (Santa Fe), December 2017
https://themagsantafe.com/authors/anna-novakov/
Imagined Utopias in the Built Environment: From London’s Vauxhall Garden to the Black Rock Desert. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2017.
http://www.cambridgescholars.com/imagined-utopias-in-the-built-environment
“Mapping Utopias: From New Babylon to Black Rock City.” AM Journal of Art and Media Studies. (Issue: Architecture with(in) Art and Theory) Number 12, April 2017.
http://fmkjournals.fmk.edu.rs/index.php/AM/issue/view/13
“Future Shock.” Art Press, October 2017
https://www.artpress.com/2017/10/30/future-shock/
“Lynn Hershman Leeson: Civic Radar.” Art Press, May 2017.
https://www.artpress.com/2017/05/05/lynn-hershman-leeson-civic-radar/
“Will Wilson.” Art Press, March 2017
https://www.artpress.com/2017/02/20/sommaire-du-n442-mars-2017/
“Paseo Project: Taos, NM.” Art Press, October 2016. http://www.artpress.com/2016/10/09/taos-new-mexico/
Typewriter is set during the 1941 occupation of Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The short film captures an exchange between a German soldier and a Serbian perfumer during World War II.
SNAPS - CLICK RIGHT to view