Seljuk Persia, 11th century. Persian poet and scholar Omar Khayyam composed quatrains extolling the delights of wine and voluptuousness. Finding inspiration in episodes of ecstatic inebriation, Khayyam continually juggled tolerant spirituality with material exhilaration.
Rubaiyat celebrates this moment of creative intoxication, when the conscience goes unhinged and the artist, liberated, looks at the world differently and becomes the bearer of a message he must convey through his art.
Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise
To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;
One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown forever dies.
(wine and rose-scented quatrains)
At the Heart of the Composition
Under the petulant guise of cardamom and pepper, a rose is unveiled. Its glowing robe absorbs vapors of wine lees and raspberry, before extending into the meditative, blissful delights of myrrh, woods and resins.
Artefacts
Artefacts refer to artificial, man-made objects or the artistic process from the Latin ars – art, facere – to make, to produce. In this collection, Anatole Lebreton wanted to explore the mechanisms of the creative act, drawing inspiration from significant events in human history. These artefacts are the result of olfactory excavations in unfamiliar perspectives and distant viewpoints.
