Common Fantasy / Gemeinsame Fantasie, 2020-2021. A fragrance & installation at the Wende Museum of the Cold War.
Since their formation in 2018, Research for the Bermuda Triangle (RBT) has used scent to investigate nuanced issues. Common Fantasy / Gemeinsame Fantasie is experienceable in two ways—as an installation at the Wende Museum and through the Scent-by-Mail Program.
Common Fantasy, 2020. Site-specific installation in the ADN Guardhouse at The Wende Museum of the Cold War.
Design by Emmi Braselton for RBT, 2020.
Part I: Outdoor Installation
Common Fantasy is a site-specific installation inspired by Ostalgie, a term coined after German reunification to identify nostalgia for East Germany as it was during the Cold War era. The installation is contained inside the Wende’s ADN guardhouse, a structure that was originally located in the parking lot of the headquarters of the General German News Service (Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst [ADN]) from 1971 to 1992 in East Germany. You may sign-up for self-guided garden tours to visit the installation on Fridays at 2:30 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. HERE. Alternatively you can visit the installation online through the Wende’s Virtual Tour (we provide navigation instructions HERE.)
Part II: Scent-by-Mail Program
In March 2020, RBT obtained relics from a former office building of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) along with East German clothing, food, and personal products. Since this time, they have been using a tincture process to extract the scent of these materials, ultimately producing a fragrance reminiscent of East Germany during the GDR era. The evocation of this bygone time through smell explores the notion of Ostalgie and its complex relation to geopolitics.
Common Fantasy / Gemeinsame Fantasie scents will be mailed out in 2021.
Recent Press on Common Fantasy
April 21, 2021: Hyperallergic: Renée Reizman, “A Fragrance Bottles Up the Everyday Scents of Former East Germany”
July 20, 2020: Fragrantica: Eddie Bulliqi, “The Scent of East Germany in a Tincture + Sample Giveaway”
Please sign up to receive a free sample of “the fragrance of the GDR” by mail.
No monetary exchange is necessary to receive your scent. If you would like to make a donation for your scent, RBT will give 100% of the proceeds to The Okra Project: "a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them." For more information, please visit www.theokraproject.com.
*Donations are not affiliated with any institution.
August 19, 2021: Podcast Interview, Perfume on the Radio
Please click on the track to listen to RBT’s interview about Common Fantasy - for The Institute of Art and Olfaction’s podcast “Perfume on the Radio” hosted by Minetta Rogers.
April 16, 2021: Virtual Artist Talk, The Wende Museum of the Cold War
Please click on the video to view RBT’s online talk about Common Fantasy – a conversation moderated by Joes Segal, the Wende Museum's Chief Curator and Director of Programming (Los Angeles, California).
July 17, 2020: Virtual Artist Talk, 4th Annual Experimental Scent Summit
Please click on the video to view RBT’s online talk about Common Fantasy – presented as part of the 4th Annual Experimental Scent Summit (ESS). The summit is a collaboration between The Institute for Art and Olfaction (Los Angeles, California) and Smell Lab (Berlin, Germany).
