A play is like a life. A life is like a breath of air. Days are like passing shadows, fleeting in a blink without any trace. Yet, the ones who have truly lived make the scents in the world.
In cinema, scent is often portrayed as a powerful element. Sometimes it drives people to madness. Sometimes it lights up passion. It might be romance or suspense. Sometimes, it simply evokes a powerful sense of nostalgia. If “scent” were an actor, what role would it play in a film?
This exhibition uses scent as a metaphor for life. As a form of "re-presentation" in film, scent expresses human emotions through the most ordinary things. It invites audiences to experience life's fragrant journey — whether it is the scent of flower or incense, sweet or bitter, memorable or indescribable. As long as we embrace every breath we take, the memories and the imaginations evoked by scents could lead us across the time and space.
—— Mei Kei LAI
“Smell-O-Vision”, where what you smell is what you see, refers to audiences smelling the scents presented on screen. The concept can be traced back to scent movies in the 1960s, when filmmakers experimented with integrating smell into cinema. However, the role of scent has never been limited to perceiving what is seen via smell. Often unconsciously, it stirs emotions, memories, and behavior, leaving an indelible imprint in ordinary moments. As a form of narrative, scent carries the bittersweet tapestry of life. This exhibition seeks to experiment with a method we call “Vision-O-Smell”, where what you see is what you smell. Audiences are invited to experience different scents, allowing their own perceptions and memories to conjure unique inner landscapes. These may be fragments of childhood, little stories from the streets of Macao, dreams of the future, or simply the quiet rhythm of breathing in the present moment, an intimate enjoyment of the serenity of being alive.