Today (20 February 2025) 10 Corso Como opened its doors to Olfactory Signals 01, an exhibition located on the recently redesigned first floor of the Milanese concept store.
Conceived by London-based creative agency System Preferences, the show coincides with the 15th instalment of Esxence – The Art Perfumery Event, an annual celebration of niche fragrance-making and the culture that surrounds it.
10 Corso Como and System Preferences present Olfactory Signals 01
Artists Illya Goldman Gubin and Sissel Tolaas next to their collaborative, sensory installation titled IGGSBT
Olfactory Signals 01 marks the first edition of an ongoing project exploring fragrance as an artistic medium. ‘Through installations, events, and collaborations with artists and designers, the project aims to redefine the role of fragrance in contemporary culture,’ says a statement released on behalf of System Preferences. (Alongside 10 Corso Como, the agency also counts the likes of Saint Laurent and SSENSE amongst its roster of clients).
In 10 Corso Como’s Project Room, the exhibition puts the spotlight on a roster of innovative contemporary perfume brands, selected for their role in ‘challenging traditional olfactory and aesthetic conventions’.
This includes names such as Barnabé Fillion’s Arpa Studios, the US-based D.S. & Durga and Chopowa Lowena, which recently debuted a fragrance line. Additional pieces on display come courtesy of design brands Objects Are By, NM3 and Redduo.
IGGSBT by Artists Illya Goldman Gubin and Sissel Tolaas
At the centre of Olfactory Signals 01 is ‘an immersive experience that explores new connections between smell, memory, and emotion’, which can be discovered in 10 Corso Como’s Gallery space.
Titled IGGSBT, this sensory installation is a collaborative work by Berlin-based artist Illya Goldman Gubin and Norwegian researcher and olfactory artist Sissel Tolaas, featuring huge rolls of scented paper questioning the ‘dominance of visual stimuli in our world’.
Olfactory Signals 01 features perfume brands such as D.S. & Durga
Goldman Gubin and Tolaas will speak further about IGGSBT and their respective practices in a panel talk tomorrow, Friday 21 February. The following day, creative directors Elise by Olsen and Morteza Vaseghi will also discuss their process of ‘archiving scents’.
Olfactory Signals 01 is open from now until 22 February 2025 between 10.30am - 7.30pm CET at Corso Como, 10 20154 Milan.
-
Put these emerging artists on your radarThis crop of six new talents is poised to shake up the art world. Get to know them now
-
Dining at Pyrá feels like a Mediterranean kiss on both cheeksDesigned by House of Dré, this Lonsdale Road addition dishes up an enticing fusion of Greek and Spanish cooking
-
Creased, crumpled: S/S 2025 menswear is about clothes that have ‘lived a life’The S/S 2025 menswear collections see designers embrace the creased and the crumpled, conjuring a mood of laidback languor that ran through the season – captured here by photographer Steve Harnacke and stylist Nicola Neri for Wallpaper*
-
The best fashion moments at Milan Design Week 2025Scarlett Conlon discovers the finest fashion moments at Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week 2025, from Loewe’s artist-designed teapots to The Row’s first home collection
-
Aesop’s ‘The Second Skin’ is a sensory sanctuary during Salone del Mobile 2025Aesop unveils ‘The Second Skin’ in Milan, a multisensory ‘exploration of dermis and design’ that marks the arrival of the brand’s Eleos Aromatique body cleanser and lotion
-
Acqua di Parma says a sun-kissed ‘Buongiorno’ to Milan Design Week 2025At its Milan store, Acqua di Parma is co-distillating exuberant ceramics and olfactory pleasure in an installation that honours its latest fragrance
-
Valextra’s collaboration with Zaven is a ‘travelling sculpture’ with its own suitcaseRevealed at Milan Design Week 2025, Valextra’s new project with Venice-based creative agency Zaven is inspired by Bruno Munari’s ‘Travel Sculptures’ and unexpected discoveries in the Italian leather brand’s archive
-
Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli on curating Gucci Bamboo Encounters at Fuorisalone: ‘We didn’t want to produce commodities’Celebrating one of Gucci’s foundational materials, ‘Bamboo Encounters’ sees Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli of 2050+ bring together seven international artists and designers to explore bamboo through a series of ‘research projects’ at Milan’s Chiostri di San Simpliciano
-
Sunnei’s shape-shifting concept store and café takes up residence in the brand’s Milan HQ‘It allows visitors to shop just steps away from the people who designed the pieces,’ say Sunnei founders Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo of the store, which features a Tommaso Vergano and Anastasia Posca-curated café – perfect for a Milan Design Week pitstop
-
Milan Fashion Week A/W 2025 highlights: Prada to Giorgio ArmaniWallpaper* picks the best of Milan Fashion Week, from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ portrait of ‘raw glamour’ to Giorgio Armani’s return to his roots
-
Inside the fantastical world of Francesco Risso’s Marni: ‘We push it to the maximum’After a standout S/S 2025 show, Simon Chilvers heads to Milan to meet Marni’s nonconformist creative director Francesco Risso, a designer seeking the ultimate self-expression through clothing
