« Francis Kurkdjian has opened up perfume to new forms and destinations, taking it out of the bottle. »
Jérôme Neutres, Exhibition Curator
From October 29th to November 23rd, 2025, the Palais de Tokyo hosted an exceptional retrospective exhibition that celebrates the creative and artistic approach of Francis Kurkdjian.
Together with Marc Chaya, president and co-founder of Maison Francis Kurkdjian in 2009, he has explored modes of expression of perfume beyond the traditions of perfumery or commercial constraints. True sculptures of the invisible, his perfumes are works of art in their own right, whose material is breathed.
The smell of money
For Sophie Calle
1999
Sparks of roses
Olfactory installation
2024
Expanded Drops
Experimental photography
Christelle Boulé
2019
The exhibition
Through a multi-sensory journey, the exhibition reveals numerous heritage works, olfactory installations, and scented objects, revisited or invented by Francis Kurkdjian in dialogue with creators from all disciplines, such as artists Sophie Calle and Yann Toma, theater director Cyril Teste, photographer Christelle Boulé, and conductor and cellist Klaus Mäkelä.
New works will be unveiled for the first time on this occasion, including L’Alchimie des sens (The Alchemy of the Senses), an immersive installation designed around the now iconic perfume Baccarat Rouge 540.
Cultural Programming
Echoing the exhibition, a program of seven exceptional conferences and master classes offered to explore perfume as a distinct artistic medium and to rethink its role in how we feel, see, and understand art and the world. Recordings of all conferences and roundtables are now available on Spotify.
Thursday, October 30th
- 7:00 PM: Stories of Artistic Conversations.
Panel discussion with Francis Kurkdjian, Cyril Teste, and Yann Toma
Like an entry into the creation factory, this panel discussion brings perfume, the living arts, and contemporary art into dialogue to understand how perfume takes shape in the artistic encounter and allows the exploration of new territories of creation.
- 8:15 PM: The Alchemy of the Senses, an artistic and multi-sensory interpretation of a perfume.
Panel discussion with Francis Kurkdjian, David Chalmin, Elias Crespin, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Anne-Sophie Pic, and Cyril Teste
Gathered for the first presentation of The Alchemy of the Senses at the Palais de Tokyo, the artists who worked for several months on its creation reflect on the different stages of this unprecedented collective work.
Saturday, November 1st
- 12:15 PM: History of Olfactory Art.
A lecture by Clara Muller organized in partnership with NEZ magazine
Long relegated to the margins of art history, scent is now arousing increasing interest, both from historians and theorists and from museum institutions. This conference offers a discovery of the complex and intertwined history of olfactory arts by revisiting the various aesthetic trajectories of scent, from the 19th century to the present day.
- 2:00 PM: Tell, Compose, Invent: Perfume as the Art of Creating Emotions.
Conversation between Francis Kurkdjian and Chloë Cambreling
This conference offers a dive into the heart of the vision and practice of a creator who, for 30 years, has been opening perfume to new forms and destinations, between love of know-how and a taste for innovation.
- 3:30 PM: The Rise of French Perfumery at the End of the 19th Century.
Lecture by Rosine Lheureux
Between chemistry and commerce, fashion and hygiene, mass consumer industry and luxury industry, perfumery is asserted and displayed at the heart of the French economy from the mid-19th century. Based on the book A History of Perfumers published by Rosine Lheureux in 2016, this conference retraces the little-known beginnings of great French perfumery, from the mid-19th century to the eve of the First World War.
- Sessions at 5:00 PM and 6:30 PM: Master class on creation in perfumery.
Workshops led by Aurore Dubois
On the occasion of the exhibition, this master class shares the path of the creative process in perfumery, based on three olfactory portraits imagined from nine raw materials, with poetic or sometimes enigmatic names.
