Performance-Lecture
Goethe Institut Boston
&
Mahindra Humanities Center
Harvard University
April 2024
In this performance-lecture, Brandon Woolf and his collaborators Leonie Bell and Matt Korahais present material from their upcoming work, in which a German, a Jew, and a Greek who can’t smell host a dinner-performance for the audience staring garlic, for better and for worse. On the one hand, this household allium has a tragic history: since at least the Middle Ages, it has been grossly misappropriated by antisemites and other bigots as a stand-in for migrating peoples and underclasses around the globe.
On the other hand, it is a beacon of resistance and fortitude both in our kitchens and out in the wild. Garlic has many enemies, and its only choice is to stand and fight, Allicin and aroma its most useful weapons. With the garlic as our guide, we discuss and discurse early Austrian rhinoplasties, what we know about what the nose knows, Freud’s own penchant for sniffing over seeing, pickled codes of solidarity, and of course, how to make a Sunday sauce. Take a deep breath and tell us what you smell.
Conceived and Performed by:
Brandon Woolf,
Matthew Korahais,
and Leonie Bell