SENSART
The Art of the Senses
In 2001 I developed the project, “SENSART – The Art of the Senses”, together with the painter, lyricist and musician Marc Andeya-Trefny.
SENSART is a symbiosis of Yogesh’s fragrance creations with Marc Andeya-Trefny’s paintings, music compositions and poems. This combination enables an incredible fusion of sensual perceptions. In atmospherically designed SENSART “experience” rooms, we present different sensual encompassing works of art. These can be seen, heard, read – even smelled – at the same time.
Project Description
SENSART begins with an ‘artistic chain Reaction’. A painting arises from a piece of music. A poem emerges from this combination. An individual fragrance is composed through this interaction of sound, image and words. This cycle hen evolves with the order of “presentation” varying as the journey progresses. This program is alive, continuously in expansion. The creative process is completed in a “SENSART Experience Room” where the entire work of art is presented to the audience. As soon as one enters, one is completely absorbed into this soft, dimly-lit environment. The only audible element is the journey through the musical composition, the basis of the SENSART-Project.
The visual centrepiece of the Installation is the painting, illuminated so precisely that light is barely scattered. A poem, projected onto a wall, relates to all components of this “Gesamtkunstwerk” in the same way as does the music, paintings and fragrance echo each other. At the same time, the room is filled with the subtle sense of “Scent Creation” especially composed of the purest essences. No less ethereal is the decor and simplicity of seating inviting you to linger. Now the visitors to this SENSART SPACE – heighten their participation. It is reserved for them to unify the various artistic components with their alerted senses – creating a very personal world of artistic perception through the combination of art, atmosphere, attention, silence and one’s own sensuality.
A Therapeutic Concept
Through fundamental or ‘Basal Stimulation’, physiotherapists give their patients the opportunity to deal intensively with themselves on the most basic levels. Using this form of treatment, stimuli are exerted on varying sensory levels. In this way, multi-layered constructive, growth-promoting impulses are set in motion which significantly promotes an overall physical and psychological development.
In ‘Basal Stimulation’, absolute priority is given to the ‘childlike
perceptual world of the patient, as this also plays an extremely important regenerative role in the origin of imagination and creativity.
Children receive their sensory impulses from other areas of their brain than do older people. Infants and young children do not use their senses selectively, but in Combination. For example, they do not simply perceive a word as such, rather they distinguish images and/or smells which arise from this word at the same time. Brain centers originating from our tribal/innate origins are activated here, which have the role of connecting and uniting various sensory experiences.
It has been scientifically proven that the simultaneous participation in various sensory experiences brings the self–healing powers of man to fruition – a medical insight which also inspired the development of SENSART.
This work has been recognised. In 2020, Marc Andeya-Trefny and Yogesh Kumar were commissioned to set up a permanent SENSART experience room at the UNUM Institute for Trauma Research in Vienna.
Exhibitions:
2002 SENSART: Installation in the Health Center Bad Sauerbrunn, Austria
2003: Installation of SENSART in the Wiener Stadthalle on the occasion of the ‘La Donna-Messe’.
2003: SENSART-Installation – Vienna City Hall
2004: SENSART-Installation – Psychiatric Department of the General Hospital, Vienna
2005: SENSART-Installation and -workshop – Summer Camp Feichtenbach, Austria
2006: SENSART-Parcours (3 SENSART-Rooms) – Mozart Castle Stuppach, Austria
2009: SENSART-installation and -workshop – Art Academy Cabella Ligure, Italy
2019: Installation of SENSART – ‘UNUM, Institute for Trauma Research Vienna’, Austria.
2020: Installation of a permanent SENSART Experience Room at the ‘UNUM Institute for Trauma ResearchVienna’.