The latin phrase "Ad augusta per angusta" defines the hard work of the perfumer who achieves his art through difficulties to honors. Angusta means narrow ("contractus") like the tiny opening of the perfume bottle which allows the hard distilled glory to conquer the Universe.
The working class elevates its social condition through scent which covers and masks the un-noble origins, the sweat and the miasma. The difference between those who work (and stink) and those who rule the world hasn't change a millimeter since "Das Kapital". This is why a huge variety of scented products made the fortunes of several intelligent companies in the past century. Molecules change, the rules of the market are the same. A chess game.
The decade when "Parfum Démocratie" was released by Givaudan represents the final stage in the evolution of the perfume industry when those who produced molecules became the leading forces in perfume creation, the decade when the production increased dramatically because scent .... went finally democratic for all ages, genders, prices. The era with labels DEO-PARFUM and not DEODORANT. The first meant deification of the Perfume, the second is what you know, which is again a play on words in Latin. The success of everything which is "clean" in terms of odour is based on this "volatile law". Rich people buy perfumes to become Gods and posses their attributes or "powers" because they already live in scented universes removed from the miasma. Less fortunate people buy to cover their origin, the bad scents of their home if they lived in the small social European buildings. It was the case half a century ago in Western Europe or the case today in other parts of the world. Only a tiny fraction of consumers buy because it is art. It was also the case in the time of Martial.
This visionary idea of Givaudan, with a green logo in the past, bloomed once again in the recent present. The SIXSCENTS series I spoke in the past and many other events the space of this blog do not allow me to present them or many other perfumes which passed rather unnoticed in the flood of launches.
But now, as the first exhibition "The Art of Perfumes" ends, with perfumes any consumer can test at his local counter without calling them "art", it is time to speak about the real and unique event which took place simultaneously and which is the most important in the history of Art & Perfumes.
People have desired for centuries to capture and preserve the scent of a person, its real, yet very ephemeral presence - they succeeded several times through evocation.
Men and women are interested by their scent, the scent of the person they love, their own memories which have an undeniable olfactory fingerprint. This fact interests as much poets and the secret services.
Now, the living artist becomes the material or the ingredient of the perfumer. The muse is "consumed" inside the work like the flower gives her soul in the old Givaudan alembic - the decorative logo I explained in the past. The "outside" has never been put "inside" a perfume. You make a perfume from flowers, fruits, leaves, accords which suggest something, but you do not put them back on the source. You do not perfume the jasmine with the perfume you made, you do not spray the forest. You do not "take" the scent of a woman and put it inside the perfume. Now, the scent of a woman is extracted, recreated, put inside a perfume "scent of a woman" worn by again by a woman. A "fractal" of notions from inside to outside.
This ultimate frontier of art and science has been blurred by Yann Vasnier with "Martynka Wawrzyniak Smell Me". After creating Le Parfum by Baudelaire, he "extracted" the perfume of an artist, literally analyzing the complex mixture of scents of the human body, what is naturally refereed as the scented aura of a person. In Egypt, the draftsman captures the shadow a living person, the perfumer captures the soul.
This event was of the greatest importance for several reasons:
This event was of the greatest importance for several reasons:
- what seems so natural as the body odour of someone, doesn't survive when the person you know leaves the room, the town, your life. The scent, which is so obvious during a contact, doesn't bloom the next spring like a jasmine bush. It fades, like the body shown in the mirror;
- until the modern technique was here, this type of scent could not be analyzed properly, accurately without giving place to the subjectivity of the perfumer - the evocation of a scent as it was done in Le Parfum - le coffret;
- this idea, though not new for perfumers, was rather generic in the past - mixtures of molecules able to evoke the human scent; it was not specific and not "extracted" from an artist and not with the purpose to make art;
- the art extracts represent several parts of the body whose combination in a 3-D system were meant to generate the scented hologram of the artist's body.
In terms of artistic achievement this is the ultimate step which has been reached - the "invisible" scent, the perfume you do not detect as a perfume (a foreign odour of an ingredient), but as a real presence of a nude person. It is not a metaphor, but the material presence of the "immaterial" - which is the odour of a living person. In the history of perfumes this goal and product is not unique, but it is for the first time when it is presented to the world as such.
The Project made possible by Givaudan was first presented in the previous article about SMELL ME.
How can I describe the odour of the crystal vials I have on my desk? When a scent is obvious, both universal and unique because it belongs to a human being, it is hard to speak about it other than saying it's a chemical "Vegan" composition with wet fresh sève radiant notes plus touches of coco organic milk.
"I had this epiphany that the olfactive essence could almost be likened to what people call the “spiritual essence.” There’s an aura of pheromones and smells around us that we emit to form a subconscious communication with other human beings. We carry it with us like a halo, and it sends signals to other people about who we are, what we are, if we’re ready to mate, if we’re attracted to each other.“ Martynka
The Vegan touch is both reality and metaphor inside the crystal vial - the artist special diet and the crystal effect of the scent which points to VEGA, the brightest star in the Lyra constellation. The scent is clear crystal, pure like the "undisturbed" odors of the body. The equivalent is the Holly Water, an odour which is known to all who enter a Catholic church (and has a molecular basis).
For the first time, a perfume is "Organic" in its true sense - Organic is LIFE, organic chemistry is the chemistry of life which allows today the detailed analysis and re-composition. Organic because the scent comes from organs (in this case sweat and tears). Back to zero, the original scent and the original sense of the words. Organic, before being a cosmetic label, paid on subscription and put on the product to reassure the consumers, is a word in a dictionary.
Like the myrrh, which gives a tear to the perfumer, the word used by the ancients and the essence of the myth of Myrrha, Martynka collected her tears which were analyzed and reproduced. This act has a mythical dimension which relinks the perfume to its old symbols.
In the year 13 discover the essence 13 "Smell ME" extracted by perfumer Yann Vasnier - a metaphor which becomes reality in terms of perfume creation. Martynka is the name of the magic New York shop owned by Houdini who knew how to become invisible with the "magic ring" of the russian Martynka fairy-tale. But today, Martynka is the name of a 13-year old artist whose body scent has been captured several month ago at Givaudan. A unique project linking Art and Science but also a splash of magic - every woman wants to rediscover the fountain of Jouvence, the youth dew. It is the natural chemistry of the body before the mirror tells the Queen to search for a Hunter.
"Smells like Teen Spirit" is the Nirvana of every woman and only perfumers know how to make the wrinkles disappear - the real wrinkles are inside.
This story of an ART project made by Yann Vasnier and Martynka is richer than it seems. The tiny vials I have on my desk will once cost millions like the empty bottle of Duchamps owned by Yves Saint Laurent. "Un air embaumé" with a new label which sold for more than 8 millions 4 years ago.
All the vials, which represent in the most accurate sense the odour of a woman which blooms are the quintessence of a famous concept mixed with several flowers - the enigma of a future bestseller.
The woman ages, the body changes until putrefaction losing all the attributes of youth and starts to produce what is known as "old lady smell" - a chemistry fact which describes how the female body ages (very different process compared to men). Only her spirit can be young or the odour she once had, preserved in a precious vial. This is the "elixir of youth", what the body of a woman cannot produce anymore.
This work of art is the first portrait of the contemporary perfumery, the invisible image of a living artist.
The art of perfumes starts with an intention - the desire to make a work of art, the desire to present it as an art work. ART = scent + intention + author and several other things which make the difference between a scent in the public domain and a scent which is "owned".
I did not go to New York (the perfumes ad MAD are in every store), but what I consider the most relevant work to be stored in a Museum came to me.
In the year 13 discover the essence 13 "Smell ME" extracted by perfumer Yann Vasnier - a metaphor which becomes reality in terms of perfume creation.
The Project made possible by Givaudan was first presented in the previous article about SMELL ME.
How can I describe the odour of the crystal vials I have on my desk? When a scent is obvious, both universal and unique because it belongs to a human being, it is hard to speak about it other than saying it's a chemical "Vegan" composition with wet fresh sève radiant notes plus touches of coco organic milk.
"I had this epiphany that the olfactive essence could almost be likened to what people call the “spiritual essence.” There’s an aura of pheromones and smells around us that we emit to form a subconscious communication with other human beings. We carry it with us like a halo, and it sends signals to other people about who we are, what we are, if we’re ready to mate, if we’re attracted to each other.“ Martynka
The Vegan touch is both reality and metaphor inside the crystal vial - the artist special diet and the crystal effect of the scent which points to VEGA, the brightest star in the Lyra constellation. The scent is clear crystal, pure like the "undisturbed" odors of the body. The equivalent is the Holly Water, an odour which is known to all who enter a Catholic church (and has a molecular basis).
For the first time, a perfume is "Organic" in its true sense - Organic is LIFE, organic chemistry is the chemistry of life which allows today the detailed analysis and re-composition. Organic because the scent comes from organs (in this case sweat and tears). Back to zero, the original scent and the original sense of the words. Organic, before being a cosmetic label, paid on subscription and put on the product to reassure the consumers, is a word in a dictionary.
Like the myrrh, which gives a tear to the perfumer, the word used by the ancients and the essence of the myth of Myrrha, Martynka collected her tears which were analyzed and reproduced. This act has a mythical dimension which relinks the perfume to its old symbols.
In the year 13 discover the essence 13 "Smell ME" extracted by perfumer Yann Vasnier - a metaphor which becomes reality in terms of perfume creation. Martynka is the name of the magic New York shop owned by Houdini who knew how to become invisible with the "magic ring" of the russian Martynka fairy-tale. But today, Martynka is the name of a 13-year old artist whose body scent has been captured several month ago at Givaudan. A unique project linking Art and Science but also a splash of magic - every woman wants to rediscover the fountain of Jouvence, the youth dew. It is the natural chemistry of the body before the mirror tells the Queen to search for a Hunter.
"Smells like Teen Spirit" is the Nirvana of every woman and only perfumers know how to make the wrinkles disappear - the real wrinkles are inside.
This story of an ART project made by Yann Vasnier and Martynka is richer than it seems. The tiny vials I have on my desk will once cost millions like the empty bottle of Duchamps owned by Yves Saint Laurent. "Un air embaumé" with a new label which sold for more than 8 millions 4 years ago.
All the vials, which represent in the most accurate sense the odour of a woman which blooms are the quintessence of a famous concept mixed with several flowers - the enigma of a future bestseller.
The woman ages, the body changes until putrefaction losing all the attributes of youth and starts to produce what is known as "old lady smell" - a chemistry fact which describes how the female body ages (very different process compared to men). Only her spirit can be young or the odour she once had, preserved in a precious vial. This is the "elixir of youth", what the body of a woman cannot produce anymore.
This work of art is the first portrait of the contemporary perfumery, the invisible image of a living artist.
The art of perfumes starts with an intention - the desire to make a work of art, the desire to present it as an art work. ART = scent + intention + author and several other things which make the difference between a scent in the public domain and a scent which is "owned".
I did not go to New York (the perfumes ad MAD are in every store), but what I consider the most relevant work to be stored in a Museum came to me.
Today, with the "Art of Scent" exhibition and the ARTIST essence extracted by Yann Vasnier, both recent events in New York, the Perfume enters a new golden dawn - baptized with a "new", yet so very ancient attribute, - The 8th ART.
In the year 13 discover the essence 13 "Smell ME" extracted by perfumer Yann Vasnier - a metaphor which becomes reality in terms of perfume creation.
Some legends become reality when old jars are discovered in the "sands of time" revealing to the modern nose what was considered a myth.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
