Parfums d’Orient Visitor’s Guide
Christopher Sheldrake
Institut Du Monde Arabe
French and English
Softcover
19 pages
150 x 211 mm
2023
The Arab world has celebrated perfumes since time immemorial. Arabia, where expensive fragrant materials converged before being sent out to ancient societies, lies at the origin of their history. The region diffused its culture and love for perfumes to the entire Arab world. It became the birthplace of a perfume civilisation, where fragrances were given to humans for their indulgence. The latter’s use of perfume then became a sign of conviviality, respect, and generosity. Perfumes were fully integrated into their way of life.
Today, perfumes known as “Eastern” are associated with a palette of specific scents, most notably warm, spiced and amber fragrances. Together they create a family of scents that perfume houses are bringing back into fashion.
This exhibition thus recounts the close relationship that unites perfumes with the Arab world. It sheds light on their long relationship, the characteristic fragrances of their bond, and the various traditions playing an essential social role that bring them together.
It is designed as an intimate stroll through different spaces: first in nature, then through the streets of a town, and lastly inside a home. The trajectory reveals to visitors the practices and history of perfumes thanks to the constant echoes between heritage and contemporary works.
But what would an exhibition on perfumes be if we could not smell them? That is why the pathway is intended to create a conjunction of senses, where the sense of smell is engaged just as much as the sense of sight. Inventive scented devices invite visitors to immerse themselves in the fragrances especially created for the occasion by Christopher Sheldrake.
(Source: page 11)
About the Artist
Christopher Sheldrake is a renowned perfumer in the fragrance industry. He was born in the United Kingdom and grew up with a love for the arts. Sheldrake studied art history in college, and after graduation, he traveled extensively around the world, immersing himself in different cultures and artistic expressions. It was during his travels that Sheldrake discovered his passion for fragrance.
(Source: https://www.fragrantica.com/noses/Christopher_Sheldrake.html)
About the Publisher
A multidisciplinary space designed to establish strong and lasting links between cultures and thus cultivate a real dialogue between the Arab world, France and Europe, the IMA is a privileged place for the development of cultural projects, often designed in collaboration with the institutions, creators and thinkers of the Arab world.
Towards the end of the 1970s, the French government was more aware than ever of the lack of representation of the Arab world in France while France maintained ancient historical ties with a large part of the states that make up the Arab world. Since 1926, when the State built the Grand Mosque of Paris, there was a lack of a secular place to enhance the civilization of the Arab world, its knowledge, its art, its spirit and its aesthetics. The powerful will of politicians to create a bridge between East and West gave birth on February 28, 1980 to the idea of founding the Arab World Institute, an institution placed under the moral authority of a High Council, composed of representatives of all the member states of the Arab League, and funded by France and the Arab States.
(Source: https://www.imarabe.org/fr/qu-est-ce-que-ima)
