ASŸL

Ingredients: mercaptan, the breath of a German Shepherd.

8 October 2000, Steirischer Herbst festival, Graz.
in the RE-public container / Grazer Kunstverein

In the wake of the recent sanctions, the Austrian
government is pleased to present Austria, exemplary country with exemplary human
rights and immigration policies. The government is acquited. Does not this legitimate the government´s restrictive immigration policies and does not Austria´s homegrown way with foreigners and immigrants nonetheless stink to high Heaven?

Robert Jelinek marks this year´s Steirischer
Herbst festival in Graz, Austria, with an
unmistakably Austrian fragrance called ASYL
- The scent that remains, even if they don´t. Its
ingredients are mercaptan and bottled breath of
the German Shepherd. The exhibit will take the form of a 50ml flacon displayed openly in the RE-public container of the Grazer Kunstverein.
An invisible olfactory barrier awaits the visitor, a nasally impassable front that renders access quite impossible.
A similar scent-act was successfully performed at
the EXPO 2000 in Hannover: AUSTRIA - The Political
Aroma.

Robert Jelinek and his ultra-mobile Viennese label
Sabotage Communications first drew international
attention two years ago with CaSH - The Scent of Money. CaSH captures the fragrance of a freshly printed US$ 100 bill and was distilled by Sabotage into specially-created flacons (50ml, unisex, Eau de Toilette). Sabotage Communications have since developed a further scent called EU de Toilette, this last to celebrate the advent of the Euro. It will soon be
possible to purchase Euro-notes in assorted national aromas. The scent of the Euro will be marketed as a vacuum-sealed banknote and is intended for use as an air freshener. In his latest project, Airconditions, a scent exhibition across Vienna (11-17 September 2000),
Robert Jelinek and his team cleared nasal paths
toward the recultivation of the oldest, and yet
the most neglected, human sense.

Scent-act ASYL takes place in the context of
RE-public, a project initiated by the Grazer Kunstverein.

Contact:
RE-public / Grazer Kunstverein
Tel. 0316-384141 Fax 0316-834142

"ASYL-Der Duft der bleibt, auch wenn Sie gehen" / pict download
   Photography by sa_fa/sabine feichtner; Design: Christop Steinegger

"AUSTRIA -The Political Aroma" / pict download
   Design: Christop Steinegger