The smell of the forest
Saison 2024/2025 |
On the occasion of the Salome premiere, with which he made his directorial debut at the Vienna State Opera, Kurkdjian described his path from perfume creation to art as follows:
"With some feelings - pain or grief, anything to do with death - it is inappropriate to express them in a perfume. Once I understood this, I started working with artists. This allows me to question the conventional concept of fragrance and also explore the whole spectrum of emotions in my work, think unconventionally and take risks."
Francis Kurkdjian has been working with artists for more than 20 years: with the conceptual and media artist Sophie Calle, the installation artist Hratch Arbach and the composer Sivan Eldar, and again and again with Cyril Teste. Kurkdjian creates scents as an extension or illustration of the scenic dimension, such as the heavy, musky fragrance that olfactorily expanded the "Dance of the Seven Veils" in Cyril Teste's production of Salome(2023). In this production, the fragrance is injected directly into the ventilation system. The director and perfumer have chosen a different approach for the new production of Bellini's Norma (premiere on February 22, 2025): This time, the program book will be accompanied by a "fragrance card".
And what does Norma smell like? At the matinee for the new production, director Cyril Teste explained that for him, the central scent in Norma is that of nature. It is about bringing the scent, the smell of the forest, into the context of the production. Just as a healer or shaman like Norma would also use fragrances in the ritual. According to Cyril Teste, the scent map also allows Norma's odeur to leave the auditorium.