Fischersund Turns Perfume Into Performance in Reykjavik
In Reykjavik, an art collective built around scent is expanding the boundaries of what an exhibition can be. Fischersund, the Icelandic group led by Jónsi, his sisters Sigurrós, Ingibjörg, and Lilja Birgis, and their parents, has spent the past several years developing perfumes, poems, music, and installations as parts of a single artistic language.
That approach was on view at the Reykjavik Arts Festival, which commissioned the collective to create No. 101, a bespoke fragrance shaped by arctic angelica, chervil, and black currant. Rather than presenting the scent as a standalone object, Fischersund placed it inside a foggy greenhouse installation in downtown Reykjavik, where the floor was covered in withered grass. The result was less a product launch than an atmosphere: damp, delicate, faintly bitter, and deliberately tied to the textures of Icelandic landscape.
The fragrance was paired with a poem, extending the work into language. “Fingers digging up sorrel and dandelions,” one passage reads. “Freshly fallen snow on a forgotten trampoline. Black currents fall from bare branches, one by one.” For Fischersund, that kind of cross-pollination is central. As Lilja has described it, a concept can spark music, which can spark poetry, with each form pushing the others forward.
The collective’s practice began in 2017 and grew from Jónsi’s own experiments with scent. Before Fischersund became a family enterprise, he had already developed 100 fragrances and selected No. 23 for release. That perfume draws on memories of his father’s garage, with smoky notes of anise seeds and Icelandic Sitka spruce and a trace of tobacco. Jónsi has also continued to use fragrance in his solo visual art, including sculptures and installations, where scent functions as a material rather than an accessory.
The group’s recent concert in Reykjavik, its first in Iceland, centered on No. 1 from Faux Flora, a project that follows a plant from first bud to last breath. Faux Flora debuted at the National Nordic Museum in 2024, and the accompanying LP is scheduled for release in the fall. The performance moved from luminous to elegiac, accompanied by animated visuals by Ingibjörg and a procession of scent, incense, and flowers.
Fischersund will next contribute scents to Sigur Rós’s ÁRA experience at the Schwarzman Centre in Oxford, running from June 26 to July 19. The project suggests a broader shift in contemporary art toward works that are not simply seen or heard, but inhabited through multiple senses.
Fischersund Jonsi Reykjavik ContemporaryArt ImmersiveArt SigurRos
