Parfum – Bottling Seduction - Zürcher Hochschule der Künste

Parfum – Bottling Seduction - Zürcher Hochschule der Künste

Imprint
Exhibition
Curator and Project management: Sabine Flaschberger
Scientific advice and conceptual collaboration: Sebastian
Fischenich / BEL EPOK, Zürich
Curatorial assistance: Tanja Trampe
Coordination: Sonja Gutknecht
Educational programm: Sabine Flaschberger, Jacqueline
Greenspan; Ursina Spescha, Zürich
Construction: Craig Neil / Pius Fäh, Susanna Grob; Jürg
Abegg / Andrea Castiglia, Nils Howald, Frank Landes,
Renata Lopo, Mohsen Rahimi, Domenico Scrugli; aroma,
Zürich; Song Vega, Zürich; Wave Control GmbH, Wetzikon
Communication: Jacqueline Greenspan
Museum services: Christina Wellinger / Kumuduni
Ametamey, Sanja Delizaimovic, Pius Fäh, Jennifer
Mandzjuk, Esther Schweizer, Mustafa Yavuz
AV technology: Mike Honegger, Pascal Lampert, Claudio
Pavan, Jörg Schellenberg, ZHdK Produktionszentrum /
AV Technik
IT technology: Michael Koch, ZHdK Produktionszentrum
Sound studio: Gregg Skerman, Tonstudio SB Film, ZHdK
Produktionszentrum
Actors: Lina Hoppe, Zürich; Stephan Stock, Zürich
Photography: Regula Bearth, Betty Fleck, ZHdK
Hochschul­kommunikation
Graphic design: Moritz Wolf, ZHdK
Hochschulkommunikation
Documentation: Guido Krummenacher, Rilli Scanzi, ZHdK
Medien- und Informationszentrum MIZ-Archiv
Exhibition design: atelier oï, La Neuveville
Translations: Golnaz Houchidar Lausanne; Roderick
O’Donovan, Wien
Editing: Christina Reble, Sabine Träger; Sandra Leitte,
München
Graphic design and print media: Hi — Megi Zumstein &
Claudio Barandun, Luzern
We thank our lenders
Werner Abt / Parfümerie Osswald, Zürich; atelier oï,
La Neuveville; BEL EPOK, Zürich; Bulgari Parfums, Rom;
Cosmétiques SA - Guerlain, Zürich;
Silvio Denz, Präsident Lalique SA, Zollikerberg; Peter
Diem, Pratwal; Christian Dior Parfums, Paris; Dubinsky
Fine Arts, Zürich; Essencia AG, Winterthur; Estate of
Jeanloup Sieff, Paris; Firmenich SA, Meyrin; Beatrice
Frankl, München; Heinz Glas GmbH, Tettau; Hermès,
Paris; Hochschule der Künste Bern, Fachbereich
Wirtschaft der Berner Fachhochschule; Humiecki & Graef,
Köln; Kenzo, Paris; Lalique Parfums SA, Zollikerberg;
Lalique SA, Paris;
Dr. Silvio Levi, Milano; L’Oréal, Vernier-Genève; Uldis
Mākulis, Zürich; Mäurer & Wirth GmbH & Co. KG, Stolberg;
Dr. Joachim Mensing, Miami;
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / Designsammlung,
Grafiksammlung, Kunstgewerbesammlung,
Plakatsammlung; Parfümerie Osswald, Zürich; Präfektur
der Jesuitenkirche Luzern; PUIG, Baden; Schweizerisches
Nationalmuseum Zürich; George Stam – gscollection,
Montreux
We thank our partners and sponsors:
Walter B. Kielholz Stiftung
Biophyt AG, Mellikon
Dubinsky Fine Arts, Zürich
Essencia AG, Winterthur
Globus, Zürich
Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten AG, Zürich
Leureko AG, Laufenburg
Berger Gartenbau, Kilchberg
Weber Verpackungen
Eine Ausstellung des Museum Bellerive, ein Haus des
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich /
An exhibition by the Museum Bellerive, ein Haus des
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Jacqueline Greenspan, Operative Leitung Museum
Bellerive / Operative leadership Museum Bellerive,
Christian Brändle, Direktor / Director
Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zürcher Fachhochschule
Parfum –
Bottling
Seduction
English
Museum Bellerive
Ein Haus des Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
2 December 2011 – 9 April 2012
The ubiquity of the scents surrounding us is a phenomenon that affects and connects us all. Today scent, as
a component of the persona and how it is presented,
plays a key role in how we perceive ourselves. The
bottle, the packaging, and the advertising associated
with it also play a part in leading us into temptation.
They always breathe and reflect the spirit of the time in
which they were created.
Of the numerous materials that have been used over
the centuries to make containers for perfumes, in the
long term glass has proved to be the most ideal, as
it does not engage in any chemical reactions with the
contents and can be shaped into almost any desired
form.
Fascinating shimmering vessels and pots for ointment catapult us back in the world of fragrances of
antiquity. Even back then people made special containers for fragrances which initially were used entirely in
the service of cults. These form the historic anchoring
point for a voyage of discovery through the rich variety
of forms and processing techniques used for perfume
bottles extending as far as present day creations.
The French designer René Lalique was an important
pioneer of modern perfumery and designed a wide
variety of astonishing bottles for the major Parisian
perfume houses. The spread of the luxury goods industry constantly demanded new packaging for scents. The
technical innovation of pressed glass not only evened
the path leading to mass production, but opened up
entirely new possibilities for artistic implementation.
Lalique’s often derived his inspiration from flora and
fauna as well as from mythology. In his bottles made
of clear and at times also of colored glass, he explored
all facets of the material. Viewed against the light the
reliefs pressed into the inside face reveal a world of
ornament still strongly anchored in Art Nouveau. He
also gave a new significance to the stopper as the
embodiment and custodian of the precious liquid that
forms part of an overall composition.
The crystal bottles from Baccarat open up a further
dimension in design. This traditional firm created for
Paul Poiret the container for “Les Parfum de Rosines”.
Poiret was the first fashion designer to create his own
line of perfume in order to underline the style of his
fashion house. He thus established a tradition that
was continued by the Parisian fashion house Worth in
architectural creations and also by Chanel whose “No.
5” from 1921 has remained a convincing purist icon down
to the present day. In 1946 Salavador Dali designed “Le
Roi Soleil” for Elsa Schiaparelli which glows from a
mussel shell and was a further milestone in the design
of perfume bottles – and an example of how sophisticated packaging can intensify the demand for a product. Much the same effect is induced by the packaging
for Jean Paul Gaultier’s female and male torsos that
takes the form of a tin can.
Beguiling posters and lascivious films are masters in
manipulating the senses and ideal advertising media
for the seductive objects. They invoke role models
from the gentleman to the seducer to the animalistic man, from the woman in need of protection to the
domina and the goddess. A foray into current research
shows new methods of developing scents in the field
of artistic perfumery.
L’Univers de l’Homme
For a long time fragrances for men were confined to
area of classic scents such as eau de cologne and
aftershave lotion containing lavender.
In 1922 the perfume house of D’Orsay brought a specific
man’s fragrance on to the market, the rather sweetsmelling “Le Dandy” with a woody base note. The
gentleman used in the advertising holds the octagonal
black bottle on high like a magical elixir; its ingredients
appear to have been extracted from the surrounding
nature and placed in the bottle. Other early scents such
as “Caron pour Homme” (1935) with notes of lavender
and vanilla and Rochas’ “Moustache” (1948) are positioned in the area of beard and skin-care and focus on
the man’s face. Classical statues used in the advertising campaign merely suggest an erotic connotation.
The man of the 1960s provides a striking contrast! In
the 1966 campaign for “Eau Sauvage”, a very intensive
lemony scent which perfumer Edmond Roudnitska
originally created for women, Dior allows the viewer
only partial glimpses of fine-limbed, sensitive men,
who artist René Gruau depicts in bathrobes and slippers. The name of the scent awakens associations very
different to the images. Instead of an unchained beast
we are confronted with a domesticated man in slippers.
With the campaign for “Pour Homme”, a lemony lavender scent with middle notes of thyme and rosemary
over base notes of vetiver, sandalwood, oak moss,
nutmeg and patchouli Yves Saint Laurent went even
further in 1971. He presents himself naked, his vulnerability and melancholy recalling depictions of Christ,
which further strengthens the aureole – a man, whose
androgynous sides are strongly defined and who still
exerts an effect on advertising today.
These images thus convey very powerful messages that often also make ambivalent statements.
The range of images of men conveyed to us remains
extremely broad, opening up diverse facets that
extend from the sensitive young man still searching
for himself to the self-confident conqueror type.
L’Univers de la Femme
Originally fragrances for both men and women were
made from the same components. Starting from the
cologne based on lilies that was produced by the
monastic community of Santa Maria Novella in Florence
from 1612, numerous other lightly scented colognes
based on plants were developed. Early perfume
advertising combined the notion of natural fragrances
with the world of beauty and splendor. Women were
completely gathered up in the world of fragrances
that surrounded them, even assuming the quality of a
decorative flower themselves.
The sensitive or shy woman was widespread in the
advertising. She was shown as in need of help, always
with her head tilted at an angle, her eyes downcast. It
was only gradually that woman acquired the suggestion of seduction. Through her scent she can develop
magical powers of attraction that can help her find a
temporary liaison or the security of marriage. In 1932
Worth anticipated, so to speak, the protestation of the
loved one, who, under the spell of the scent, softly
whispers “Je reviens”.
The use of aldehydes (chemical ingredients) made
entirely new mixes of perfume possible and at the
same time extended the range of possible names into
new, more liberated spheres. Provocative, humorous,
exotic names now became common, but also abstract
ones such as “No. 5”, which in fact merely marks a position in a series. At the same time the image of the
independent woman with a pageboy hairstyle and
flapper dress who confidently lived her own style was
first expressed in precisely this cipher. Subsequently numerous variations on this type were made, for
example the business woman, the muscular sportswoman, the “bad girl” or the androgynous rebel. With
“Angel” Thierry Mugler in 1992 created a hybrid scent
of virginally white blossoms and woody patchouli. In
visual terms it developed the idea of a celestial figure
earlier suggested by the row of gowned women on
René Lalique’s “Ambre Antique” from 1910. Here woman
is a goddess and as such utterly unreachable.
La Nature et la Culture,
Sources d’Inspiration
The presentation of perfume is a multi-media art form
that combines a number of different elements: the
name of the perfume, the label, the form of the bottle,
and the packaging.
The choice of a name in particular has undergone
considerable changes in the course of history. Initially
it merely described the ingredients, but soon developed fantastical components, invoked distant lands or
made clear references to the target group. The graphic
design of the label was an important element in the
19th century. It covered a large area of the perfume
bottle which was generally plain and differed little
from standard pharmacists bottles, as until into the
1870s perfume was regarded as a part of personal
hygiene. At that time it was customary, after bringing
the perfume home, to refill it into a decorative bottle
that had been acquired separately.
During the Belle Époque the perfume trade attained
new heights as a luxury industry. The new department
stores in Paris sold their own house perfumes alongside well-known brands. This made it essential that
the design of the bottle and packaging should be easily recognizable. In 1907 the famous jewelry designer
René Lalique, commissioned by the perfume house
of Coty, translated a perfume name into a glass form
for the first time. Lalique also led further artists from
other branches to undertake a renewal of the perfumery, including the sculptors Clovis and Julien Viard,
who began to design bottles and stoppers as sculptures, as well as Lucien Gaillard and Maurice Dépinoix.
Lalique’s profound knowledge of working with glass
made an important contribution to increasing production efficiency. He reduced the amount of time required
to work the surfaces of the cast reliefs and devised the
cold application of color known as cold patination.
Nature remained the principal source of inspiration
– whether in the form of stoppers made as artificial
flowers that symbolized the ingredients or for decoration using bees and others insects as envoys that
moved from blossom to blossom Sea creatures refer
to the ingredient ambergris, a grayish white secretion
of the sperm whale which was regarded as one of the
finest raw materials in perfumery and a guarantee of
the perfume’s power of attraction. Serpents and the
stars of the sky at night suggested erotic promises.
Bottles designed as decorative pieces underscored the
presentation of their contents as a luxury product. The
female figure in the form of a nymph or vestal virgin,
or simply as the embodiment of beauty played a major
role, especially during the Belle Époque. After the first
World’s Fair in London in 1851 great interest was shown
in the cultures of distant lands, oriental and Egyptian
motifs became immensely popular. Today the use of
jokey motifs such as clowns and presentations derived
from the “Revue Nègre” of the jazz clubs, which strongly reflect the spirit of the time, seems rather curious.
The containers for the bottles, which initially had only
to ensure their safe transport, increasingly developed
into an important part of the presentation. They were
made of expensive materials in the form of small
masterpieces of cardboard packaging and intensified
the sense of yearning engendered by the products.
Events (in German)
Exhibition talks
Guided tours
Sunday, 11 December 2011, 3 pm
Düfte im Wandel der Zeit 1940–2011 / Trends, Mode,
Zeitgeist
Birgit Salow, Schulungsleiterin Parfümerie Osswald,
Zürich Every Sunday, 2pm
Saturday, 21 January 2012, 3 pm
Artistic Perfumery und berühmte Parfumeure
Birgit Salow, Schulungsleiterin Parfümerie Osswald,
Zürich Further information: www.museum-bellerive.ch
Sunday, 5 February 2012, 3 pm
Bausteine des Parfums: Rohstoffe, Vorkommen,
Gewinnungsverfahren und Grundbau der Parfums/
Duftfamilien
Marc Roesti, Duftconsultant, Winterthur
Guided tours and workshops in cooperation with
schule&kultur
Ursina Spescha, Kulturvermittlerin
Information and booking: www.schuleundkultur.zh.ch
Saturday, 3 March 2012, 3 pm
Wissensduft: Ergebnisse aus einem Forschungsprojekt
des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds zu Artistic
Perfumery
Claus Noppeney, Y-Institut für Transdisziplinarität,
Hochschule der Künste Bern & Fachbereich Wirtschaft
der Berner Fachhochschule und Sebastian Fischenich,
Creative Director, bel epok, Zürich
Open House
Saturday, 24 March 2012, 4–6 pm
Lancierung von ODE
Präsentation eines Fanzines zum Thema Parfum
Sebastian Fischenich, Creative Director, bel epok, Zürich
Guided tours for singles
Saturday, 28 January and 11 February 2012, 3 pm
Louisa Schmitt, Kulturvermittlerin
Educational program
Sunday, 29 January 2012, free entrance