From May 5th until June 5th, 2013 Palais de Tokyo in Paris will house the N° 5 Culture Chanel exhibition as part of its Guest Program.
This exhibition has once again been entrusted to Jean-Louis Froment, the curator of the previous editions of Culture Chanel, held successively in Moscow’s Pushkin State Museum for Fine Arts, in Beijing at the National Art Museum of China and more recently in the Opera House in Canton.
Made up of subtle plays of correspondences, N° 5 Culture Chanel cracks the N° 5 code to reveal the links which connected it to specific moments in time and to the avant-garde movements it spanned.
The works of art, photographs, archives and objects exhibited provide an account of the many inspirations which fed the imagination and world of Mademoiselle Chanel. They echo her inner thoughts and shed light on this unique and timeless perfume; whether through her favorite destinations like Venice, Russia or her villa, La Pausa or through the creations of her artist, poet and musician friends Cocteau, Picasso, Apollinaire, Stravinsky, Picabia. Focusing on the long lasting attachments between Chanel and the arts, N° 5 Culture Chanel seeks to reveal the timeless and iconic artistic essence of the N° 5 perfume.
“N°5 is a perfume that travels afar. It crosses countries, gardens, books, poems and artistic movements, where it’s taken as a source for the modernity of its composition. It’s a perfume born of a love story, which its base note very subtly evokes at precisely the same instant time grasps it and carries it to us; so close and never fugitive, revealing even our most secret failings. Indefinable, the words that speak of it are abstract and the images which accompany it superposed on the thick layer of an artistic memory without time. The cultural effect which accompanies N°5 and the unique aura that encircles it, bring continuity to this perfume and enable it to span all periods with knowing assurance. And this journey has no end; it continues to merge and mix with an irreversible movement onward through time. Like a work of art which is renewed with each visitor’s gaze at every exhibition, N°5 recomposes its history with each encounter and time it traverses. Sustained by a set of references attached to the adventures of Modernity’s artistic forms and with Gabrielle Chanel’s very singular and romantic story as a backdrop, the N°5 perfume has gained the status of creation”. Jean-Louis Froment, Curator of the exhibition.
