Gene Cernan, Apollo 17, covered in moondust. nasa.gov

In 2010 Sue Corke (UK) and Hagen Betzwieser (Stuttgart, Germany) AKA artists WE COLONISED THE MOON (WCTM) commissioned the chemist Steve Pearce to produce for them an exclusive and unique fragrance which became known through their work as THE SMELL OF THE MOON®.

Based on their research and the reports of the Apollo astronauts, Pearce manufactured a smokey smell redolent of spent fireworks or burned metal.

In their installations, printed and performance work, the smell was consistently deployed as a conversation starter, a catalyst to the experience and description of a place, visitors could only access in their imagination.

MOON, scratch & sniff

Silkscreen, 270 x 170 mm

Edition 300 (SOLD OUT)

2010

This image is imprinted with THE SMELL OF THE MOON® as described by Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke and designed as a scent for WCTM by flavourist Steven Pearce at Omega Ingredients.

».. it even has the astronaut seal of approval, with Buzz Aldrin describing the aroma as similar to that of his own experience.«

Wired.co.uk, Jan 6, 2012

»Moon, scratch & sniff« was commissioned by the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

and was launched there as part of »do it - smell it«, an event on olfactory art in September 2010.

Prints were available at Edinburgh Printmakers, and

the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh (December 2010).

»do it - smell it«

Curated by Caro Verbeek

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Boing Boing, »Moon Scratch and Sniff«

Hufington Post, »What does the moon smell like? find out with this scratch and sniff«

dailymail, »One small sniff for man: Artists create posters 'that smell like the Moon«

cnet, »Scratch and sniff this art for a waft of moon«

AOL News, »Astronauts, Artists Agree: Moon Stinks of Gunpowder«

Fox, »Artists Create Moon Scratch and Sniff«

Stuff.co.nz, »Scent of the Moon revealed«

ARTnews, »Scent & Sensibility«

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

The Smell of the Moon – Elizabeth R. Straughan, University of Glasgow
Clot Magazine – To Boldly Smell What No Man Has Smelled Before 

Schloss Post – Interview WCTM

WE MAKE MONEY NOT ART – Interview WCTM

BBC Stargazing LIVE – Back to Earth Episode 1, Featured on 16 January, 2012

Tweeted by Dr. Lucy Green, Mullard Space Science Laboratories, UCL

ENTER AT OWN RISK

About the Smell of the Moon and Astronaut Training

2011 / 2012

In a laboratory-like room, a lone astronaut tenderly gardens a group of rocks, 

spraying them periodically with THE SMELL OF THE MOON® – a scent synthesised from the reports of the Apollo crew.

No one can smell the moon directly. The vacuum in space prohibits this. However, when the astronauts that walked on the moon returned to their landing modules and removed their helmets, they inhaled a new scent. For the first time ever, 

the dust of the lunar surface, bombarded by meteroids for billions of years, reacted with oxygen and moisture.

STOP / Airlock / YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER A CONTROLLED SPACE / STRONG SMELL /

HARMLESS BUT MAY LINGER ON CLOTHES

Reports are relatively consistent, of gun powder, burnt metal or barbecue.
Using this information,THE SMELL OF THE MOON® was created for us here on earth. 

The installation draws not just on smell, but also on the iconography of early astronaut training.

Before the first moon landing was achieved, NASA hosted press events in which astronauts performed for photographers

by demonstrating tasks they had been trained to undertake. These rehearsals, for the actual action to come, return now as echoes of the fantasy of space exploration.

Contemporary witnesses of this ballet of space maintenance emerge pollinated with THE SMELL OF THE MOON®. Conveying from a designed and engineered space which is neither here nor there, the impossible sensory contamination spreads into the city beyond the gallery.

»Boy, is that the lunar dust that smells so funny?! You think?«
Charlie Duke, Apollo 16, 1972 (Lunar Surface Journal, 126:53:07)

No. 01.    2012    ACC Gallery, Weimar

No. 02.    2012    Villa Rosenthal, Jena

No. 03.    2012    EB&Flow Gallery, London

No. 04.    2012    Halle14, Spinnerei, Leipzig, part of the exhibition »On Dilettantism«

No. 05.    2013    KOSMICA Mexico, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), Mexico City

No. 06.    2014    HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, FAST

No. 07.    2014    KOSMICA, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, South Bank, London

No. 08.    2013    Hong Kong, MICROWAVE FESTIVAL

No. 09.    2014    Altana Galerie, Dresden 

No. 10.    2015    Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart

No. 11.    2016    Neuer Kunstverein, Wuppertal

No. 12.    2016    Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit (VU)

No. 13.    2016    ISU Int. Space University, Strasbourg, France, MMS16

No. 14.    2017    HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Springhouse

No. 15.    2017    ISU, Space UP

No. 16.    2017    ISU, Moon Village Workshop

No. 17.    2017    ISU Int. Space University, Strasbourg, France, MMS17

Since 2018 even HELIUM FREE (done with a tiny toy drone)

No. 18.    2018    ISU Int. Space University, Strasbourg, France, MMS18

No. 19.    2019    ISU Int. Space University, Strasbourg, France, MMS19

No. 20.    2020    ISU Int. Space University, Strasbourg, France, MMS20

TIME TO MOVE ON

After many years of designing and building artworks, installations, and performances, blood, sweat and tears, it’s time to realise our investment in our creative capital and work and bring you THE SMELL OF THE MOON® on an even larger and more accessible scale, to enjoy at home...

Since 2019 we have been working hard on the concept of

turning our scent into a new product.

You may never go but you will always remember