LA LLAMADA DEL TOE

Smellscape installation developed from the master plant Brugmansia candida, known as Toe in some part of Amazonia. Used on its own or in conjunction with ayahuasca during rituals or dietary retreats, Toe induces a powerful state of intoxication conducive to dreams and hallucinations. Here the scent is a synthetic construction derived from a “digitized” version of the plant, obtained through a solid phase micro extraction process known as headspace.

Reduced to its abstract essence and spatialized, the plant becomes a site of mental projection that each visitor can inhabit through their own memory and emotional mood. The experience forms a psychic journey within a universe suspended between two ontologies of thought: modern thought, shaped by measurement tools, rationality, and logic; and animist thought, in which plants act as vehicles, speak to us, and teach us who we are.

The project is conducted with the support of ED 540 SACRe-PSL, Takiwasi Center for Research on Traditional Medicines, Arche Hypnose, and Scientific University of Peru in Iquitos.

Installation view at Gaité Lyrique during Festival SACRe in 2023.