Le Ministère de la Culture est au Parfum

Last afternoon in Paris, I received the invitation from Frédéric Mitterrand, the French Minister of Culture, to honor a special day and a special event. The place, highly symbolic - rue de Valois - the dynasty when the French perfume became what is known today. Everything you know about perfume in France starts under Valois (right after Philippe IV le Bel and that's a long story about the secret events at that time) and it flourishes with queen Catherine de Medicis who brought the Italian subtleties of perfume making but also the manuscripts, the first written treaties accessible in Paris.

On January 26, five great perfumers were named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and received the distinction from Frédéric Mitterrand. The five perfumers received the médaille of the Order, the emerald green eight-point star created in 1957 for "significant contribution to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance". The great perfumers, knights of the eighth ART, are: Daniela Andrier, Francoise Caron, Olivier Cresp, Dominique Ropion, Maurice Roucel, each of them representing one of the major companies who served the Art of Perfumes for more than eighty years, even more than a century for Givaudan, Firmenich and Symrise. These companies, created from modest backgrounds in the XIXth century, took one of the oldest form of art on a new level starting with the 1880's, a turning point in history for many other reasons. The science of perfumes, the most poetic expression of chemistry, allowed the most important achievement in ART since the invention of perspective during the Italian Renaissance. Today, after so many decades of exponential growth and economic expansion, when the perfume industry bloomed with possibilities and numbers never imagined before, these perfumers gave once again the titre de noblesse to this art. 

Who doesn't remember the first Gucci, Very Valentino or the amazing Prada perfumes (Daniela Andrier), Ombre Rose, Choc de Cardin, the first GIO or Acqua di Parma (Francoise Caron), Angel, the astonishing Kenzo l'Eau and Black XS (Olivier Cresp) and Amarige, Aimez-moi, Jungle Elephant, Une fleur de cassie (Dominique Ropion) or Gucci Envy, the fabulous Krizia, L'Instant Guerlain, Musc Ravageur (Maurice Roucel)? These are only a fraction from the beautiful scents imagined by these five Chevaliers de l'Ordre du Parfum. Their more recent creations, launched in 2011 or prepared for 2012, are the element of a change, a new order of beauty, yesterday was also a special day with old forgotten legends - the first Bishop of Gevaudan (3rd cent. + many scented stories like the link between Roure & Givaudan you'll never guess), the first Europeans in Brazil (1500), the first Europeans in Australia (1788), every time a new scented universe bloomed.
For this special exhibition organized by Le ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, four historic perfumes have been recreated and presented: Eau de Cologne Napoléon (1820), Moment suprême (Patou, 1931), La Rose Jacqueminot (Coty, 1904), Un Air Embaumé (Rigaud, 1912). Two of them represent a discrete homage to the work of perfumers from Givaudan and Firmenich 100 years ago. Their elusive secret scent is based heavily on several specialties, completely forgotten today and I have a special coup de coeur for the amazing Chuit Naef products, molecular poems of symbolism, always original and impossible to copy.

How old is the perfume? The perfume starts with Humanity because the perfume is Humanity. It is the ability to imagine and to achieve the dream giving shape and meaning to the invisible. When you seize a scent, understand it and achieve the perfect illusion able to trigger an ocean of emotions to millions of unknown people, you enhance the Reality. The perfumer expands the horizon of the individual towards the beauty of Eden. It is the ultimate proof of freedom - the freedom to create Beauty, the freedom beyond the limitations of the species.
The Perfume is the most complex and sophisticated oeuvre d'esprit of mankind. It is the Ideal form of Art, it has no purpose, but it is vital as the air, it connects and reconnects everything transforming the zero into one. It is the ultimate exponential plus. Its development, as an art form, begins during the Italian Renaissance (I presented several years ago the factual elements), in France it is as old as the academies, though it never received an institutional recognition. Many can paint or sing, but very few were able to create perfumes and imagine them. The ability to create perfumes is the supreme test of the cultural level of a civilization and it needs a fertile cultural ground to bloom.

I would add also that the most sacred object in the french history was a very old bottle. It contained  a perfume, but was never referred as a perfume. Today, the container with the remains of the antique red liquid with a delicious balsamic scent is well hidden, France is a Republic.

Today, things are changing in Paris. It is a new golden age when the Perfume is the Essence of a Culture. 

« Le Ministère est au parfum »

Exposition consacrée aux créateurs de parfums et à leur savoir-faire

23 janvier- 18 mars 2012

Vitrines du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication

Péristyle et galerie de Valois, Paris 1er

Légende de la photo (de gauche à droite): Dominique Ropion, Françoise Caron, Olivier Cresp, Daniela Andrier, Maurice Roucel, créateurs de parfums, élevés au grade de Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, et Frédéric Mitterrand, ministre de la Culture et de la Communication.
Crédit photo: Didier Plowy / MCC

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art