The Backpack Factory

"The students, the administration, the pizza vendor should be heard!"

Parfyme were invited to undertake a two-week residency at Loughborough University in January and February 2009. Equipping themselves with a backpack filled with props, they set up shop in various locations around the University where they used a variety of activities - brewing coffee, cooking Danish sausages, bowling - to engage students and staff in conversation about the University. Students, they found, wanted nothing radical: more entertainment, cleaner toilets, cheaper beer. The administration wanted them to commission a 'real' work of art: a sculpture, perhaps. They asked instead for a shed where their bowling game could be stored. No such shed was built. 

Parfyme (perfume) is a four-person collective spread across Copenhagen, Bergen and New York. Their projects take place in the public realm and involve dialogue with a range of communities. They are interested in the unpredictability of such encounters and streak their works with humour.