The beloved Parisian perfume house have collaborated with the painter and sculptor on a limited edition perfume recalling the pure mountain rivers and blue orchids of his memory
“We talk in French about ‘la petite madeleine de Proust’,” says Ann-Caroline Prazan, the director of art, heritage and culture at Guerlain. “And what we mean is that all your memories are linked to smell and sense.” Each year, the the renowned Parisian perfume house invites an artist to remagine one of the fragrance bottles from its illustrious archive. This year, the acclaimed South Korean painter and sculptor Lee Ufan has worked with Guerlain to not only reinterpret a classic bottle design but to also help create a fragrance immortalising a Proustian moment of his own.
Launching the collaboration, Souvenir d’Orchidée, at this year’s Art Basel Paris only underscores the immutable sense that this perfume is a work of art. At the fair’s opening in the Grand Palais – an architectural masterpiece of glass and steel – Prazan introduces us to their own masterpiece. “Lee Ufan’s memories of childhood – especially of place – are very important for him… the mountain, the blue orchids, the river and the stones in the riverbed. So it was very poetic, difficult to translate into a perfume, but we worked very hard realise truth of his memories.”
Ufan took the perfect pebbles from the river of his childhood as a starting point, reimagining the Flacon Quadrilobé – an iconic bottle designed for Guerlainby Baccarat in 1908 – as a ceramic bottle of the same matt, smooth texture as a flawless stone. Ufan’s designs were realised by Maison Bernardaud, who crafted each bottle from the purest, most immaculate porcelain. The minimal design, with such clean, simple lines and meticulous hand craftsmanship, exemplifies Ufan’s genius for harnessing the power of simplicity with a deep reverence for the natural world (enhanced by a signature single brushstroke in a vivid green, no doubt the green of his mountainside childhood memories).
The fragrance itself was created by Lee Ufan in collaboration with Delphine Jelk, Guerlain’s famed perfumer. With angelica, sambac jasmine, iris powder, moss and amber tincture, Souvenir d’Orchidée is an evocative, green, fresh scent evoking the crystalline clarity of pure water, with mineral notes recalling stones, and the floral musk of orchids.
“I think a performer is an artist,” Prazan tells AnOther. “They may not use colours like a painter, but they use scents. Delphine is absolutely an artist, she works exactly like Lee Ufan... She has an idea, she has a memory, she has images in her mind, and she translates them into fragrance. For her, it was an honour to translate Lee Ufan’s memories so faithfully. We had many trials, many attempts, but in the end, it was perfect.”
The launch of Souvenir d’Orchidée is accompanied by Good Morning Korea, In the Land of Calm – a group show held in Maison Guerlain on the Champs-Élysées. Curated by Hervé Mikaeloff and featuring the likes of Nam June Paik, Anicka Yi and Hyunsun Jeon, the exhibition reflects on memories – personal and collective – of South Korea while exploring its cultural heritage and enivisioning its future.
Like any artwork on display at Art Basel, Souvenir d’Orchidée is a rare treasure. Only 21 numbered and signed editions will be made (and only 20 will be sold – the 21st will take its home among the Guerlain archives for posterity). And, while the bottles themselves hold a generous two-litres of perfume, they will retail at a not insubstantial €50,000.
If you feel captivated by Guerlain – their sincere commitment to the arts and the artistry and heady, indulgent pleasure of their fragrances – but can’t stretch to Souvenir d’Orchidée, then you may want to consider their Art Basel by Guerlain fragrence – created in collaboration with French artist Julie Beaufils, whose beautiful box and label design encases this heady floral, amber and wood scent. An edition of 2,000 bottles will be presented firstly at Art Basel Paris and later at other contemporary art fairs.