The national event promoted and organised by Accademia del Profumo, Galleria d'Arte Contini and the waste management company Convertini together with the essence company Expression Parfumées, give life to an exhibition composed of works of art made of recycled materials and essences.

Accademia del Profumo is an association set up in 1990 by Cosmetica Italia - a nation-wide alliance of cosmetic companies - to promote the role of perfume as an essential element of well-being. The federation hopes to boost creativity and increase its artistry and diffusion all over Italy.

The inspiration for a fragrance comes, sometimes, from an inner journey of the artist who is in search of Beauty. It is for this reason that Contini Art Gallery, one of the most prominent figures in the contemporary art market, has been welcomed to the project. Its success comes from the attention paid to its artists. Creating long-lasting relationships with them, Contini Art Gallery safeguards the peculiar expressiveness of each one. Cortina d'Ampezzo‘s venue will host 4 works by notable contemporary artists, whose essences have been captured by an equal number of perfume creators - from Expressions Parfumées - and bottled in brand new fragrances. The 4 artworks shown deliver a combination of natural and artificial elements, such as plastic, textiles, wood and stone, resin, leaves, roots are combined and will be accompanied by the fragrances specially created by 4 noses.

The waste management company Convertini, also involved in the project, has been collecting, transporting and sorting waste for over 30 years with a single goal: recycling as much as possible. Thanks to fruitful investments and a skillful approach to technological innovations, it is one of the few companies in Italy to have designed and built an automated industrial waste sorting plant in 2018.

The strong sense of responsibility towards the environment and future generations, has led the company to invest in projects designed to promote the development of a more circular economy. As such, this collaboration is a plea to raise awareness on sustainability and takes the form of small packs of wastes ready for recycling.

Here, Art serves as the backbone of a more complex desire. To give new life to something that seems to have completed its cycle, renewing its appearance and escalating its value. This idea pervades the display and is part of the more sustainable vision envisaged for our production system. Through this event, Accademia del Profumo delivers a new and transversal take on the world of perfume.

Perfume, art and sustainability find a common point in this exhibition: a way of looking at life. It is an almost inextricable tangle of profound reflections that manage to provoke a sensitive olfactory and emotional experience in the viewer.

The observer is caught up in a whirl of sensations which prompts to experience a seductive and poignant melancholy, playful exaltation. The project induces the audience to experience all aspects of Beauty (which is but a journey and never the destination) through an all-embracing immersion.

Fragrances, which are a contamination of sensations and emotions, are embodied by essence and in the materiality of the work of art.

Among the works on display, one can admire and smell the creations:

‘‘E di notte…’’, Enzo Fiore, 2016, mixed media on canvas (resin, leaves, roots and bugs) is paired with a perfume designed by Cèline Ripert. She describes her creation as ‘‘Nature itself, an assimilation of different elements’’. This essence invests us with the notes of humus and mastic, thus creating a pyramid of perfumes based on wooden, musk and balsamic tones.

‘‘Trapos’’, Mario Arlati, 2015, mixed media (fabric and acrylic insertions) on canvas, inspired a fragrant creation by Louise Gautier. The latter defines her composition as a ‘’soft breeze carrying the smell of fresh laundry hung outside, under the sun’’. This perfume was inspired by Mediterranean sceneries of white walled streets lit by sunrays, in a parallelism with influencing Arlati. As such, the pyramid of perfumes reminds us of flowers, wood and musk.

‘‘Recycled Plastic in Yellow’’, Paolo Vegas, 2019, collage on photoprint behind acrylic glass, mounted on a dibond board. Elodie Bernard, moved by the idea of a ‘‘lively flame, enticing and powerful’’, devised an essence composed of black pepper sublimated by the noble spirit of vanilla and the golden allure of allspice. This bouquet is enriched by a robust pair of wooden aromas, cedar, and oak, softened by an intoxicating whiff of osmanthus. The artwork is thus described by a pyramid of perfumes which can be described as oriental, wooden, and spicy.

“Ercole’’, Andrea Valleri, 2016, is a sculpture made of wood and stone. Stéphane Coez and Julien Tayac have created a unique essence to represent this artwork. They devised a zestful fragrance carrying the scent of sandal, cedar and Guaiac. Their intensity is exalted by the aroma of violet and musk. In the end, the pyramid of perfumes detailing this creation is based on aromas of wood, flowers, and musk.

Thanks to these collaborations, the art of perfume making can dialogue with conceptual/contemporary art, because in the end, Art is the "essence".