Olfactory work

Lena Brudieux
Open spaces (fountain 1: funfair smell – fountain 2: accident smell – fountain 3: drowning smell), 2022

perfume, soap, plexiglass, epoxy resin, fibreglass, submersible pump, water, pipes
Views of the exhibition « Open Spaces » at Beauport Abbey, Paimpol, 2022

Olfactory creation
Anne-Sophie Behaghle, Camille Chemardin, Elia Chiche

« Upon entering the cloister of the imposing Beauport Abbey, whose ruined walls offer a glimpse of the sea, the scent of exuberant sugars hits you in the face. Nothing can be seen yet in Léna Brudieux's ’Open Space" exhibition, but the air you breathe is a far cry from the salty sea spray offered by the landscape. The breeze that greets visitors is laden with sugars: notes of caramel, candyfloss and toffee apples. As you move forward to discover the source of these scents, you come across an installation of small grey, green and brown bowls, each about the size of a person. Water flows out of them and trickles down each one, forming lighter-coloured grooves and traces. A fountain of fragrant soaps.

Smells, shapes and colours are transformed into clues. Everyone can smell and see what they want, or what they can. The shape of the first fountain may evoke a street lamp or neon lights, as much as a shower head; and the small basins serving as receptacles could easily be ashtrays or water lilies. The fountain of the accident materialises a levitating wine glass, but is it rising or falling? Has it just been thrown or is it about to fall to the ground? And the third fountain, which evokes the act of drinking from a cup, is it standing on a pool of water or in a cake tin? Is the half-open trapdoor a means of salvation, or will the water overflow and engulf everything? » SB

(details) © Léa Guintrand