Peter de Cupere is an Olfactory artist who lives and works in Antwerp. with fragrances. De Cupere creates work intended to explore our experiences of smelling. As part of his olfactory art practice, De Cupere explores technology. He invented the "Olfactio" in collaboration with Cartamundi. In collaboration with Gluon, Callebaut and chocolatier Patrick Mertens, he invented "Cocoa 5 Senses". Starting in 1997 and going on until 2004 he invented the first working scent piano, called Olfactiano. In 2012 he invented The Blind Smell Stick and The Blind Smell Touch. These smell devices let the spectators find their way or experience objects and food just by smelling. It was exhibited for the first time in the World Creativity Biennale in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.
Curation
As a curator, in 2015 he initiated the exhibition ″The Smell of War″, which included other prominent olfactory artists such as Maki Ueda, Clara Ursitti, Christophe Laudamiel, Oswaldo Macia, Lisa Kirk and more. Interested in mobile installations, he also created ″The Olfactory″ in 2014, a travelling container project that presented 33 one day olfactory art exhibitions in 7 weeks
Teaching and Education
Peter de Cupere is as tutor affiliated to the ″PXL-MAD School of Arts″ in Hasselt, Belgium and a researcher. He's doing a PhD research at the PXL MAD School of Arts in Hasselt, BE in collaboration with the University of Hasselt, BE and the Free University of Brussels, BE. He has two master's degrees and a Laureate degree in Fine Arts. As a tutor he is the joint founder of the Open Lab where he teaches the use of the approximative senses, smell, taste and touch in the Senses Lab. In 2014 Peter de Cupere wrote The Olfactory Art Manifest. On August 11, 2014, 101 years after the manifest of Carlo Carra “La Pittura dei suoni, rumori, odori: Manifesto futurista”, Peter de Cupere signed his Olfactory Art manifest with his own smell. After two years of intensively collecting his bodily smells, he got only a small bottle ‘Own Smell’ at his disposal. With this smell extract he signed the manifest. The manifest has been shown in several exhibitions; Belle Haleine, The scent of Art in the Tinguely Museum in Basel, CH, as in the exhibition There's Something in the Air! at Villa Rot, Burgrieden, DE
Publications
Scent in Context, Olfactory Art, 2016, published by Stockmans Publishers. 7 authors, which include two of the Scent Art Net Ashraf Osman and Caro Verbeek.
