The fragrances of French legendary perfumer Francis Kurkdjian come to life in Perfume, Sculpture of the Invisible
Running from now till November 23, the Perfume, Sculptures of the Invisible exhibition traces Kurkdjian’s thirty-year creative journey, from recreating 18th-century perfumed gloves to collaborating on scent-based installations with contemporary artists. Each work examines the form of the intangible.
Join in at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and you’ll soon realise it isn’t just a perfume exhibition. It’s an experience. Francis Kurkdjian releases fragrance from the confines of the bottle, allowing it to converse with light, sound, and matter, transforming it into a tangible sensory experience.
Since his breakthrough in 1995 with Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male, Kurkdjian has resisted the commercial limitations of perfumery. He has consistently pushed its boundaries to bring olfaction into dialogue with art. Together with co-founder & CEO Marc Chaya, he has shaped Maison Francis Kurkdjian into a collection of creative and unique fragrant works that transcends time, discipline, and medium.
In Sparks of roses (2024), fragrance fills porcelain roses; in The King is Dancing (2008), scent moves in rhythm with candlelight; in Eden (2017), visitors wear VR headsets to enter a virtual garden that can be smelled. It merges smell with other senses, allowing scent not only to be smelt, but experienced.
In Kurkdjian’s world, scent can resonate through the air like sound, or sculpt space like a physical form. Through this interdisciplinary lens, fragrance transcends personal memory to become a shared, spatial.
Kurkdjian’s understanding of scent naturally extends into the realm of music. He collaborated with Klaus Mäkelä, Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, to create five olfactory movements inspired by Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2. Renowned piano duo Katia and Marielle Labèque also presented Two-Piano Suites from Philip Glass’ Cocteau Trilogy. The sisters, who first learned piano under the guidance of their mother before studying at the Conservatoire de Paris, have been performing together since their adolescence. Over the years, they have built an eclectic repertoire that seamlessly blends contemporary, classical, jazz, and rock influences, and continue to collaborate with leading ensembles and artists across the globe.
The exhibition concludes with The Alchemy of the Senses, an immersive exploration of the five senses centred on the iconic Baccarat Rouge 540 of new millésime rouge. In a crimson-lit space, artist Elias Crespin’s kinetic installation turns slowly, as music, flavour, and fragrance intertwine. This multisensory ritual invites scent to return to its primal role, the total sum of the senses.
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