VEGETAL, THE OLFACTORY AND MUSICAL EXHIBITION
published on 2023-09-19
Osmoart & Pierre Bénard offer an exhibition called “VÉGÉTAL” intimately linked to non-visible, fragrant and musical composition.
By closing our eyes, we can smell scents and experience music.
Plunged into darkness, the public will be guided into this space thanks to perfumes inspired by eight songs from the album “Végétal” composed in 2006 by contemporary singer Émilie Simon.
This album oriented towards the plant world plays with words and organic or aquatic sounds, natural textures and the use of different modes of instrumental playing.
Music lover, Pierre Bénard presents some olfactory representations of certain songs from the singer’s album.
Nature inspires both the composer and the perfumer.
“Emilie’s album Végétal is the musical memory that accompanied my studies as a student perfumer when I was in Grasse in 2006, the year this album was released in the spring.
In my various listenings, with each song, I had listed olfactory raw materials, associated memories of smells and perfume, imagined fragrances.
This multisensory work lends itself to this.”
IMAGYNOSE 1- VEGETAL
Accord_“Une jacinthe” inspired by Émilie Simon’s album in its entirety.
Olfactory notes: vegetal, floral, green, hyacinth, rose, narcissus, jasmine, animal
Perfumer’s note: “To express the vegetal olfactory note, the perfumer associates it with the color green. Obviously, this color can be adorned with various shades or tones, like in music. The one I chose is that of the hyacinth. Its bulb is one of the first to flower in our interiors in December.”
IMAGINOSE 2 – ALICIA
Perfume_“Rose Lips”
Olfactory notes: violet, rose, musk, raspberry,
Perfumer’s note: “Compose Alicia’s perfume like a stick of pink lipstick and roses”
IMAGYNOSE 3 – SEASONAL FLOWER
Perfume_ “Lilith, sombre héroine”
Olfactory notes: cardamom crystal, narcissus reflection, embalmed tuberose heart, Madonna lily, milky way, cosmic musk, amber skin.
Perfumer’s note: “The first light of October is still the flowering period of tuberose. This flower is as precious to me as a pearl. She is my emblem. I fell madly in love with it. For the perfumer that I am, it represents all flowers. And for the man that I am, she represents all women. »
IMAGYNOSE 4 – THE OLD LOVER
Accord_ “Lily of the valley of seasonal flowers”
Olfactory notes: lily of the valley bell
Perfumer’s note: “The smell of a melancholy first day of May”
link to the song “The Old Lover”
IMAGYNOSE 5 – OPIUM
Parfum_High-end reinterpretation of “Opium” by Yves Saint Laurent
Olfactory notes: perfumer’s secrets
Perfumer’s note: “The olfactory memory acts like a drug. Sometimes the only substitute, it causes the release of your endorphins. For this opium, I have no serum. The perfume you smell might require copyright. It is my mother’s perfume; the one that floats in my memory and its bathroom. “Opium” by Yves Saint Laurent is the reference. In classical music, we would speak of interpretation more than of cover. Here, for my mother, I am enhancing the high-end score with beautiful natural perfumery materials. »
IMAGYNOSE 6 – LADY OF LOTUS
Accord_“Olfactory quest”
Olfactory notes: benzoin, almond, archetypal amber, inky notes
Perfumer’s note:
“Very often images will influence the perfumer in his creativity. The clip for the song Lady of Lotus attracts me. Its animation of shadow and light, the artist’s makeup, her hairstyles and dresses, the cello part…evoke East Asia and particularly remind me of my trip to Japan and that amber and balsamic scent which float in Buddhist and Shinto temples. In this video, the singer is an allegory of perfume, literally scented like incense that is burned, she moves through smoke; she is plumes of smoke; she is the perfume. Also, it comes in an origami in the shape of a lotus flower that I consume like Armenian paper. The accord presented is an olfactory quest, one that remains in the memory of readers of old works stuck in libraries and whose scent of their papers improves with time. »
Link to audio_clip
IMAGYNOSE 7- ROSE HYDRIDE OF TEA
Accord_“School memory”
Olfactory notes: centifolia rose, hundred-leaf rose
Perfumer’s note: “This type of rose can be conceived by a hybridization between a Tea rose bush (Rosa odorata x) and a hundred-leaf rose bush (Rosa centifolia). This last species was my olfactory research as an end-of-year study project when I was a student perfumer in Grasse in 2006, the year the plant album was released. It is one of the flowers with jasmine, tuberose, mimosa and violet still cultivated in this Mediterranean basin. »
Link to the song “Rose Hybride de Thé”
IMAGYNOSE 8 – IN ASHES
Accord of natural raw materials_ “Incense of ashes”
Olfactory notes: incense wood, fire and ash notes.
Perfumer’s note: “Sound recording is a technique that we learn in sound and music schools, such as the IRCAM that Émilie Simon followed. From a sound material, we extract a material which will be used for musical composition. Extraction techniques make it possible to obtain materials for the perfumer’s compositions. Pyrogenization, dry distillation, is one of them. It involves fire to result in dark and smoky essential oil. It is perhaps through fire that everything is reborn.”
The objectives of this exhibition:
- Offer an immersive exhibition, focused on 2 senses: hearing and smell
- Proposing an exhibition accessible to the visually impaired, by its design this exhibition seems to be naturally adapted to them since it does not require the use of sight.
- Offer an exhibition consistent with our olfactory and musical programming: olfactory concert (diffusion of odors at the same time as the music), olfactory conference (Listen to the perfumes, smell the music).
This exhibition will be presented from October 11 to November 29, 2023 at the Soupetard Cultural Center in the city of Toulouse.
