Three scents for the Musée des Alpilles

On April 12, the exhibition "Herbes au bord du chemin" was inaugurated at the Musée des Alpilles in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (France), in which I had the pleasure of participating by creating scents specially created for the event.

I was commissioned by the Musée des Alpilles to create three scents to be sprayed in small cardboard boxes with lids, scattered along the exhibition route.

The first scent "the fragrant virgin's bower" is inspired by a calligraphy taken from the book Herbes au bord du chemin by the Chinese artist Ji Dahai, resident in Arles for many years.

I discovered with great joy his gaze offering a cross-perspective between here and elsewhere. The museum's request was to evoke the smell of the flowers of the plant with characteristic honey and almond facets but also to bring an oriental touch, like a wink to this artistic borderlessness.

I immersed myself in Ji Dahai's pictorial representation of the fragrant virgin's bower, the accompanying text impregnated with this Chinese philosophy that I love so much, and in additional research on Chinese symbolism.

The result is a creation composed of an accord of fragrant virgin's bower, seaweed absolute to evoke the pulse of the sea, narcissus absolute, the water goddess in flowers in China, and whose scent brings depth to the composition like this black water evoked in the text, of essential oil of incense from Brazil and an accord of white sandalwood, which evokes the burning of incense sticks.

The second creation was to evoke the famous Chiarini dewormer, a drink from another era which, as its packaging indicates, helps to ensure intestinal disinfection and combat infantile nervousness. Quite amazing!

The result is a scent composed of essential oils of lavender, rosemary, mint and a candy sugar accord.

As for the third creation, it had to be a free interpretation of the scent of the flora of the Alpilles mountains.