Mono.Kultur 23 features Norwegian scientist and artist Sissel Tolaas who has dedicated her life and work to the world of smells. And what an issue it’s going to be — Mono.Kultur 23 contains no visual imagery but clears the page for our most primary sense: the magazine is impregnated with 12 scents curated by Sissel Tolaas. And we’re not talking about perfumes either, but what Tolaas would coin ‘difficult smells’. With a special technique called microencapsulation, the scents are literally printed into the magazine — you rub the paper to release them.

Meanwhile, Sissel Tolaas is a phenonemon in herself: born and raised between Norway and Iceland, with degrees from Scandinavia, Poland and Russia in sciences, chemistry and fine arts, Tolaas has become an expert on everything related to scents, odours, smells. She is a professor at Harvard Universiy for invisible communication, while working on hospital and research projects as well as for commercial clients; while exhibiting the results of her research in museums such as the MoMA New York, the National Musem of Beijing or the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. A vibrant and determined character with a unique expertise and biography, Sissel Tolaas is everything we could have hoped for in our forthcoming issue.