Sissel Tolaas

SISSEL TOLAAS(Born in Norway 1965, based in Berlin, Germany) is Smell RE_searcher and artist. Tolaas has been working, researching and experimenting intensively with the topic of smell since 1990. She has developed a wide range of revolutionary interdisciplinary projects worldwide with smells based upon her own knowledge – forensic chemistry, chemical communication, sensory ecology, linguistics, and the visual art. Tolaas established the SMELL RE_searchLab Berlin in January 2004.

Her research and projects have won recognition through numerous national and international scholarships, honours, and prizes. She has collaborated intensively with those of other disciplines across the globe and has shown her projects in many museums and institutions including MOMA, New York; NGV Melbourne; DIA Foundation, New York; CCA Singapore, and Tate Modern London. She has worked with universities such as MIT, Nanyang Technical, Tsinghua, Harvard, and Oxford.

Tolaas’ collections of smell molecules and smell complex structures from 1990 and ongoing are including 15,000 smell recording samples and formulas.