CARO VERBEEK

Caro Verbeek (1980, Amsterdam) is an art historian, curator, teacher and a researcher specialised in the sensory dimension of 20th century art. She was affiliated to the Stedelijk Museum and the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), before switching to an academic career.

Verbeek is currently working on her PhD “In Search of Scents Lost - (Re-)constructing the Aromatic Heritage of the Avant-garde” on Futurist and Surrealist smells in a cultural context at VU University, with IFF (International Flavours & Fragrances) and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Her aim is to (re)construct a more sensory history of art by collecting, (re)constructing and presenting volatile heritage. Her peer reviewed articles include “Something Smelly about Olfactory Art” (Karakter, 2012), “Inhaling Memories” (Senses & Society, 2013), “Inhaling Futurism” (Avans Hogeschool, 2014) , “Scented Colours” (Routledge, 2016) and “Olfactory Reconstructions in the Museum- Two Case Studies” (Future Anterior, 2016). In 2015 she wrote the book Something in the Air - Scent in Art, with a chronological and analytical account of olfactory works of art in the 20th and 21st century. It accompanied the exhibition with the same name, organised at Villa Rot (Germany).

Since 2010 Verbeek is teaching the course “The Other Senses” which she set up for the ArtScience Department at the Royal Academy of Arts (The Hague). She regularly lectures (100+) on historical scents and how smell can once again play a role in education at universities, art academies, grammar schools and museums. Her TedxTalk “Inhaling the Past, Smelling the Future” was ‘a dream come true, diffusing aromas from the past in the deodorised City Theatre with an AromaJockey’.

Furthermore Verbeek is specialised in olfactory tours and interventions in museums (for example: Amsterdam Museum, Biblical Museum, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven). In 2014 she started the scent culture platform “Odorama” at Mediamatic Amsterdam, with topics varying from synaesthesia, language, health care and anthropology to niche perfumery, art and design in relation to scent.

2018 marks the second year of Caro Verbeek's participation as a judge at The Art and Olfaction Awards. She will be judging the Sadakichi Award for Experimental Work with Scent.