PERSONNE
Following the framework of an artistic journey, PERSONNE is a 100% natural fragrance including, as much as possibly doable, all the essences mentioned by Homer to recreate the scent of the Odyssey.
Top: Ruse - Heart: Gentleness - Base: Hope.
Top – Myrtle EO, Cypress EO, Laurel EO, Rosemary EO.
Heart – Carob RES, Hyacinth ABS, Immortelle ABS, Fenugreek ABS, Davana EO
Base – Barley RES, Violet Leaf ABS, Oarweed RES, Bran ABS, Liatrix ABS
PERSONNE (meaning 'Nobody' or 'Person' in French) was conceived as a continuation of an art project - conceived by French artist Laurent Derobert - which saw a group of authors and intellectuals sail around the Mediterranean Sea to collect the seeds of the plants mentioned in The Odyssey.
Following this original intention, the fragrance was bound to be natural and had to include as much of the essences of The Odyssey as technically possible, some of them – Dogwood, Elm &c. – being absent from the perfumer’s palette. The final creation is an olfactory reconstruction of The Odyssey that takes Homer’s plant into account yet goes further by translating the sense of laughter, sharing, pleasure and sensuality - the humanity that peeks through and is the substance of this epic.
« One is keen to read in the Odyssey a tale of salt and aromatics, of erring and of sailing yet I always saw it as the story of women and of men, and of one in particular who, far from being lost, faces the elements to return to the one he loves more than himself, upending all of nature in the process »
ALEXANDRE HELWANI, perfumer.
For each book, an accord was created including the corresponding ingredients mentioned by Homer. Audience members were invited to smell the accords one after the other to experience Ulysses’ olfactory journey from the moment he met the Cyclops to the moment he returned to Ithaca. The final fragrance stood as a recapitulation and interpretation of the Odyssey as a whole.
Since perfumes in the Antiquity were mostly experienced through incense, audience members were also perfumed with an incense made exclusively with materials harvested on the sites of the Odyssey to that specific aim. Its making followed the methods in use at the time of writing the Odyssey as described in Mycenaean tablets so as to give audience members an experience as accurate as possible.
Together, the incense and the fragrance perpetuate and actualise the olfactory stimuli felt by Ulysses and his crew during their journey along the Mediterranean Sea.
First presentation in Paris for the Parcours Rives de la Beauté in September 2022.
LOTOPHAGES, Djerba Caroube RES
POLYPHÈME, Procida Accord Vin Pourpre Laurier HE
CIRCE, Monte Circeo Mousse de Chêne ABS
LES SIRENES Algue Laminaire ABS Cire ABS
SCYLLA, Charybde Accord Vert de Figuier
CALYPSO, Gozo Cyprès HE & Violette Feuille ABS Fir Balsam ABS
NAUSICAA, Corfou Accord d'onction Jacinthe ABS
ITHAQUE Lentisque ABS Romarin HE Rose ALC
Oeuvres exposées de Bruna Vettori aux RIVES DE LA BEAUTE, septembre 2022, PARIS
Où va-t-on quand on sent, Encre sur toile, 1000 x 300 cm, 2022
La mémoire, Fusain sur papier, 21 x 15cm, 2022
Le Carnet, Encre sur papier, 16 x 21 x 688 cm, 2022
Island, Métal, 110 x 35 x 25 cm, 2022
La sensibilité présente dans la matière,
de petits fragments de souvenirs qui perdurent au fil du temps.
La mémoire marquée sur le corps en tissu, la trajectoire tracée à la surface de la peau.
Des sensations océaniques qui transcendent les frontières géographiques
et ce qui reste quand le temps passe.
Les sentiments, comme des vagues, dans une mer intérieure que chacun porte en soi.
la traversée, les couches, les mots.
- Bruna Vettori
Le verbe grec "νοέω" (noien) qu'on traduit par penser voulait d'abord dire flairer. (Pascal Quignard)
Sentir Personne, c'est penser Ulysse, roi d'Ithaque, c’est revivre ce voyage aux mille ruses, en 24 chants et douze mille vers dont les premiers murmures éclatèrent 8 siècles avant notre ère. C'est aussi sentir les abysses de l'Hadès, et en caresser la mer couleur violette, tout en respirant les essences fruits d'une terre obscure et d'un soleil éblouissant.
C'est se perdre, s’allonger, toucher ce que nous sommes au plus juste. C'est réinventer chaque jour l’aurore aux doigts de rose.
Personne invite dans son sillage la nymphe Calypso, la magicienne Circé, la vorace Charybde, la princesse Nausicaa et le cyclope Polyphème, Télémaque le fils et Pénélope l'épouse. Les sublimes sirènes ne sont pas loin.
Il est toujours temps d'être Personne.
- Olivia Bransbourg