Perfume Meets Art: Kurkdjian’s Sensory Exhibition at Parisian Museum

Francis Kurkdjian will present an exhibition dedicated to the perfumer for the first time at the Palais de Tokyo. Entitled Parfum, Sculpture de l’invisible, the show will be held from October 29th to November 23th in the Saut du Loup space of the Parisian museum. The proposal seeks to explore perfume as a sensory and intangible art form.

Kurkdjian, currently Dior’s director of perfume creation and founder of his own label, has developed a career marked by experimentation and breaking boundaries. From perfumes in bubbles to aromatic fountains or scented hair mists, his approach has always been a bit unconventional.

The exhibition will traverse three decades of his work, and will include collaborations with artists such as Sophie Calle, Sarkis and Cyril Teste; musicians such as Katia and Marielle Labèque; conductor Klaus Mäkelä; and chef Anne-Sophie Pic. Perfume unfolds as a common thread between diverse creative disciplines.

Francis Kurkdjian will bring his olfactory work to the Palais de Tokyo museum in October

Through installations, videos and olfactory experiences, the tour will allow visitors to interact with Kurkdjian’s sensory universe, rethinking the role of perfume in the way art and the world are perceived. The aim, according to the organizers, is to question the boundaries between the visible and the invisible, the tangible and the ephemeral.

The museum has defined the exhibition as an olfactory and multimedia journey where fragrance becomes intangible sculpture. Far from limiting itself to the design of bottles or commercial scents, Kurkdjian presents perfume as a contemporary means of expression, capable of dialoguing with other performative visual arts.

Kurkdjian burst onto the international scene in 1995, at the age of 24, when he signed the successful Le Male for Jean Paul Gaultier. Since then, he has cultivated his own language in perfumery, combining know-how with a conceptual vision that has made him a reference in his field.