Untitled (Scale and Coffee)

In Senza titolo (Bilancino e caffè), a stark frame of metal girders is in dialogue with a series of small scales containing coffee grounds. The intense aroma engages the beholder in a sensorial experience that goes beyond sight. Smell is an important element of Kounellis’ work. For the artist, it refers to our fundamental human condition. The involvement of smell also questions the primacy of vision as the basis of meaning and rationality.
The artist first used scales in his compositions in 1969 for a solo show in Naples. Coffee is a commercial good traded in port cities such as Naples and Piraeus—the port city of Athens where the artist was born. Disseminating its aroma in the surrounding space, the coffee evokes the markets of the Mediterranean and the trade and transport of goods. It also reminds us of our daily rituals, thereby exemplifying Arte Povera’s interest in art as life.