ALCHEMY, ARCANES & DEVIL'S ODOR

The show « V.I.T.R.I.O.L » is a choreographic, musical and digital arts creation by Francesca Bonato, Aurélien Dumont and Antoine Rousseau in co-production with the ensemble Musica Nigella & Cie La Grande Fugue.

It is a continuation of the research and deepening work on the tarot started with the show “Les Voix des Arcanes”.

It stages the major arcana of tarot, 4 installations-cards, four scents associated with that of the arcane of the Devil, the Wheel of Fortune, La Papesse, du Bateleur.

We spoke at length with Francesca Bonato on the notion of olfactory choreography and submitted to her our scent ideas to integrate the smell, the perfume.

Here are some excerpts from our discussions on this interpretation of the smell of the devil.

“With the Devil, I will express the question of the power of the imagination, the irrational, the collective unconscious and primary drives. It connects us with our own passions and dark forces. The Devil invites us to face each other in order to dare to face his shadow and his fears. » Extract from the artistic file.

« For the Devil in any case, I would have imagined a smell of fire, of burning. The smell of sulfur would also be relevant but I don’t want the atmosphere to be totally unpleasant either … « 

Here, our response to his request:

“In fact, sulfur odors can remind us of nauseating odors for Western cultures and also reflex warning smells, like molecules of mercaptan, gas from cookers which testify more to a concern but to a danger.

So do not push or panic your audience … but rather worry them, question them with subtle atmospheres of burnt, pyrogenic, musk and agarwood-type animal notes, goat notes, hircine notes (the devil is always represented with goat cheese) and also facets of spices to bring warm and spicy notes to the accord (cumin, bay pepper, etc.). Pierre BENARD