SCENTS OF THE CITY. ESENCIA DE CIUDAD

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.