Tell someone you’re going to a fragrance exhibition, and they might think you’re in for an afternoon of aimlessly sniffing vials of colognes, oils, and essences in an empty gallery.
But Francis Kurkdjian, the vaunted perfumer behind fragrances for Dior, Jean-Paul Gaultier, and his own niche olfactory maison, doesn’t do anything by half measures. His new show, “Perfume: Sculpture of the Invisible,” explores how Kurkdjian has connected his unique creations to music, theatre, visual arts, and even the culinary realm over the course of his 30 years in the fragrance business.
It’s also characteristically Kurkdjian, who’s not one to seek the spotlight. The idea originally came from his business partner, Marc Chaya, CEO of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, who wanted to celebrate the perfumer’s career milestone. Kurkdjian, in his way, ended up with an exhibition that puts his creative collaborators at the forefront.
“I said, ‘OK, if we do an exhibition, we have to do it properly,’” Kurkdjian tells Robb Report. “It’s not about me showing my work. It’s about asking someone who knows my work to do it in a very museological way.”
Left: an image from “Expanded Drops,” a series of photographs by Christelle Boulé. Right: a visitor experiences “V-Scent,” for which Kurkdjian developed a special VR headset.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian
To that end, curator Jérôme Neutres assembled an array of high-concept projects and Kurkdjian has worked on over the last three decades, installing them in Paris’s Palais de Tokyo. These include “The Smell of Money,” a fragrance created for the conceptual artist Sophie Calle in 1999, which takes its inspiration from the scent of a well-worn U.S. one-dollar bill. There are also images from the “Expanded Drops” series, for which photographer Christelle Boulé applied sprinklings of Maison Francis Kurkdjian scents onto silver paper. Once dried, she bathed them in photo development fluids, resulting in brightly colored images full of movement. There’s even a drinkable scented water, L’Or Bleu, created with artist Yann Thomas, that you can sip.
Kurkdjian with his collaborators on “The Alchemy of the Senses.”
Maison Francis Kurkdjian
Some elements of the exhibition can even give you the sensation of time travel. One of the objects on display is a pair of scented leather gloves from the 18th century. There’s also “In the Wake of the Queen,” a fragrance Kurkdjian created in 2006, based on the formula of a scent Marie-Antoinette once wore.
“Versailles has been, for me, a playground of creativity, freedom, history,” Kurkdjian says. He attended ISIPCA, the fragrance school in the French city, and also sponsors the palace’s Perfumer’s Garden. “I’ve known every president of Versailles for the past 30 years.”
“One Thousand Meters,” a series of hand-painted ceramics shaped like Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s products.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian
But it isn’t just an overview of the past, or a glance back at Kurkdjian’s heroic side quests. There are new installations, too, including V-Scent, a virtual reality experience. To experience it, visitors to the free exhibition don a VR headset outfitted with a scent dispenser that sits over the nose.
“It’s a world reveal of this very important device. It connects virtual reality and smell,” he says. “And to me, this is very important also to showcase and to push the smell forward into the future.”
“The Alchemy of the Senses,” an immersive installation that engages all of the senses, is an homage to Baccarat Rouge 540.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian
The final installation, “The Alchemy of the Senses,” is designed to commemorate what is perhaps Kurkdjian’s most famous fragrance: Baccarat Rouge 540. In it, a limited-edition crystal sculpture made by Baccarat is surrounded by a light show designed to evoke the forges that make the crisallier’s famed glasses and chandeliers. Michelin-starred chef Anne-Sophie Pic created a chocolate for visitors to eat during the experience. Uniting these senses is a perfect metaphor for how Kurkdjian wants visitors to look at their surroundings.
“When people leave the exhibition, I want them to see the world with their nose, not just with their eyes,” he says. And if you can catch the show before it closes on Nov. 23, you just might.
