Guerlain and Reference Times Scented Art Basel Paris With Lee Ufan and AI

Art Basel Paris 2024 proved a fragrant affair, as spearheaded both by LVMH’s heritage maison Guerlain and a collaboration between new interdisciplinary platform Reference Times and emerging artificial intelligence based Algorithmic Perfumery EveryHuman.

Guerlain unveiled new exceptional fragrance, Souvenir d’Orchidée, a two years in the making collaboration between South Korean artist Lee Ufan and Guerlain Creative Director of Fragrance, Delphine Jelk.

An ultra limited edition run of just 21 two-liter porcelain flaçons has been crafted by Limoges based house Maison Berenardaud—hand-painted by Ufan so each is unique. The scent featuring notes of orchid, jasmine and bergamot conjures memories of Ufan’s childhood in the mountains of Korea.

For the Art Basel Paris fair itself, Guerlain also launched a somewhat larger and more accessibly priced 2000 edition run fragrance—Art Basel by Guerlain, a genderless floriental created by Jelk with packaging designed by French artist Julie Beaufils.

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Drawing inspiration from the exceptional fragrance collaboration with Ufan, ‘Good Morning Korea,’ the 17th edition of Guerlain’s own annual contemporary art exhibition, further spotlights South Korea’s creative talent while underlining their ties with the natural world, technology and the issues faced by contemporary society.

Staged at the maison’s Champs Élysées flagship and curated by art consultant Hervé Mikaeloff, several of the works on display are linked to olfactory inspirations from the maison’s own oeuvre.

For instance, Young-II Ahn’s Water, is paired with Gueralin’s L’Heure Blue. According to Guerlain Art, Culture and Heritage Director, Ann Caroline Prazan, the device further underlines the link between visual memory and that evoked by scent.

Along with Wim Wenders and Pompidou President Laurent Le Bon, Ufan also presided over the jury for the 2024 edition of Guerlain’s Art & Environment Prize which was awarded to French-Canadian artist Caroline Corbasson who will receive a two month residency and exhibition at Lee Ufan Arles.

Interdisciplinary platform Reference Times has launched a fragrance collaboration with EveryHuman’s Algorithmic Perfumery™ perfume-making platform and Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard.

During a six-week residency at Dover Street Parfums Market in Paris, the scent, created in conversation with the artist, can be purchased as is or remixed via EveryHuman’s AI powered algorithmic perfumery machine. Visitors can reduce or increase notes or add their own from a palette of ingredients to create their own personalized formula. The combination is then recalibrated by the AI algorithm to achieve a balanced result before being mixed on site.

Likening the palette to Lego building blocks, EveryHuman co-founder, Anahita Mekanik told me “the power of platform is that people can enter the creative process by remixing the artist’s original formula like a DJ.”

The perfume is vacuum sealed in biodegradable packaging along with a limited edition print from a work by Melgaard which forms its visual expression, together symbolizing the capture of a memory as a souvenir. “Like no other sense, the smell triggers our memory, so scent becomes an ultimate means to conserve memories and return to them any time we like,” Mumi Haiati, Founder & CEO of Reference Studios said in a statement.

The collaboration with Melgaard is the second edition of algorithmic fragrances created in partnership with EveryHuman’s manufacturing technology.

EveryHuman launched in 2018 with a goal to democratize the creation and production of scent. Its core experience combining AI and robotics, involves an indepth questionnaire from which an algorithm creates three fragrances which can then be toggled. According to the founders there are over 500 billion possible outcomes.

Guerlain too has previously experimented with AI via a project with Paris creative agency Mnstr to celebrate its iconic Bee Bottle in 2023 and a virtual reality experience premiered at Viva Tech earlier this year where landscapes were generated by AI voice prompts from Delphine Jelk.