The Museum of Arts and Design will host The Art of Scent: 1889-2011, an exhibit curated by Chandler Burr, in November of next year.
The exhibit will feature "more than a dozen perfumes that have helped to define the lucrative aroma industry", including Guerlain Jicky, Chanel No. 5 and Robert Piguet Fracas. The focus will be on the scents themselves, without their packaging or other branding clues; the minimalist exhibit area was designed by architect Toshiko Mori (some of you may remember that she participated in the Headspace conference earlier this year as an "accidental perfumer").
Read more at Museum of Arts and Design Show Will Linger in the Air at the New York Times.
I’ll be there!
And coming back to add–I wonder if they’re going to use the original formulations for Jicky et al? And how/whether they’re going to address the issue of reformulation in general. I wonder if this overlaps at all with Christophe Laudamiel’s efforts to create a New York Osmotheque?
Would be VERY surprised if they weren’t the current formulas, but who knows? For some reason this strikes me as a cool idea in theory but not something I’m dying to see in practice.
Definitely going to this.
Let us know how it goes!
It would be interesting to see what the picks are.
I listed 3, and I think there are only about 12 or a few more. Sounds like they’ll all be pretty iconic.
I am guessing Joy, Shalimar, Chanel No.5. to name a few.
You lucky, lucky people in New York.
Have fun for all of us that can’t make it!
I was in NYC in December ’09. Why couldn’t this have happened then?
Sorry, just a little jealous!
Wondering how you experience the scent in a museum without the packaging. Are they spraying everyone? giving out limitless sprayed cards? curious to see how this gets done.
They will be diffusing the scent in the air.