SIMULACRUM × (non)finito constructs a fictional territory of our future through the sense of smell. With the ‹finitude of resources implying the non-finitude of processes›, synthetic perfumes installed in the garden of Villa Saroli construct the largest collective environment with the minimum material means. ‹Air as medium› becomes the carrier, questioning the notion of borders, affiliation, and agency. Simulacrum shifts the priority of sight over other senses in the construction of our environment–through olfactory experience, re-establishing a collectiveness within and beyond the boundaries of the site. With the onset of climate change, local flora will become extinct, whilst other species will start to domicile. Plants will blossom more than twice a year, increasing their fragrance. Through diffusion, Simulacrum reinstates scent to the garden in October when the plants are not blooming. Mimicking the park's four flowering species naturally never appearing simultaneously, Simulacrum invents new olfactory interactions and ‹uncanny› speculations on future shifts in our environment. Simulacrum challenges the notion of where things begin and end–discussions framed in such established terms. Simulacrum seeks to re-establish how we talk of the built environment–nothing is immutable, perfect, finite–everything is continuously in flux. SIMULACRUM × (non)finito was a collaboration between 00’s Matthew Phillips, Nelly Pilz and Tatiana Kulminska–exhibited at the Biennale Svizzera del Territorio (Lugano, CH) for the Istituto Internazionale di Architettura.
