Scent: The unseen dimension

Scent: The Unseen Dimension / Scents of Exile from ARTINECT: Connecting Art on Vimeo.

 

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“Cities are scents: 
Acre is the scent of marine iodine and spices; 
Haifa, the scent of pine and rumpled sheets; 
Moscow, the scent of vodka on ice;
Cairo, the scent of mango and ginger; 
Beirut, the scent of sun, sea, smoke, and lemon; 
Paris, the scent of fresh bread, cheese, and the derivatives of intrigue;
Damascus, the scent of jasmine and dried fruits; 
Tunis, the scent of night musk and salt; and 
Rabat is the scent of henna, incense, and honey.
And every city not known for its scent is not worth mentioning.

And lands of exile have a common scent, which is that of longing for elsewhere… A scent remembering another, a scent of intermittent breaths, emotional, leading you like a tourist map that’s been used too often to lead to the scent of the first place. Scent is a memory and a sunset. And sunset, here, is beauty’s rebuke to the foreigner.”

―Mahmoud Darwish, In the Presence of Absence (translated by Ashraf Osman)

 

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Text: Mahmoud Darwish, from “In the Presence of Absence”
Music: “The Lover of Beirut” by Anouar Brahem, from “The Astounding Eyes of Rita”
Voice & Translation: Ashraf Osman
Video (Sound mixing & effect): Mike Avgeros
Video (Production & Direction): Sheila Chui-kan Tse