Hommage à Paul Klee - Lights and Shadows YS Uzac 2017

Vincent Micotti, the nose behind Ys Uzac, himself gave two tours on the occasion of a Paul Klee exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel. Here, works by Klee were displayed under the theme "The Abstract Dimension," which Vincent addressed in his tour titled "Paul Klee, Fragrant Memories." In this context, the fragrance was also created and presented as a tribute to Paul Klee. Klee himself was not only a celebrated member of the Blue Rider movement, a pioneer of abstract art, and a close friend of Kandinsky during his lifetime. He kept a diary, and many of his thoughts on color and abstraction have been preserved for posterity in his words. He was deeply engaged in making visible the mysterious in-between realm between the real appearance and the essence of things. This is the abstract dimension.

Looking at the picture book for the exhibition, one finds two names again. On the one hand, Vincent Micotti also contributed here, but Teodor Currentzis, star conductor and olfactory partner and godfather for the fragrances Air16 and Theros, also appears as one of the authors. Thus, the two artists share another passion with Klee. If one looks into Klee's biography, it quickly becomes apparent that, as a child of a musical family, he also developed some skill with the violin. With this, among other things, he was even able to support himself for a time. Vincent Micotti, a former professional musician, and Currentzis surely found in the genius of Klee more than just graphic connections.

Klee himself once wrote in his diary: "Color does not captivate us through illumination but through light. Light and shadow is the graphic world. More abundant in phenomena than a sunny day is the diffuse brightness of slight veiling."

The bottle and its packaging are small masterpieces in themselves. The heavy glass is adorned with a symbol of a tree. A diary entry from an afternoon during his trip to Tunisia in 1914 can be found on a folded note inside the box. It speaks of colors, scents, impressions, and fragrant wood that is burned. During this time, Klee found his way to his vibrant colors.

Another entry on the back of the packaging quotes Klee from 1915. Here, Klee presents himself as multidimensional and refers to the ruins of a war within himself that he left behind and has now learned to deal with "abstractly with his own memories." Thus, it is again the abstract dimensions in perception that we must grasp to better categorize this fragrance. (I have added the corresponding lines as a photo to the perfume.)

Right from the start, I consider this perfume to be an olfactory image created by Vincent Micotti. Initially characterized by a daring dissonance of the accords. One is inclined to assign a level of shadow or light to certain scent tones, yet in every moment, it is actually the abstract dimension "behind" that designs both worlds or precisely the aforementioned in-between world between the real and the experienced.

The rhubarb, green and unripe, rough yet alive, greets us right at the beginning and is somewhat of an acquired taste. One immediately wonders, "aha, interesting," but do I want to smell like this? So let us detach ourselves from a designed scent that merely aims to please, and instead, let us engage in an experience here. We already know the real world. After a while, the harsh, bitter-green quality of the rhubarb is complemented by an unripe, very subtle sweetness. I suspect this is the plum from the accord list. But one could also simply write, unripe stone fruit.

As we progress, the initially dissonant impression indeed harmonizes into a scent image that finds another dimension through paper and metallic ink, presumably describing Klee's meticulous diary passion. Here too, Klee did not write lyrically but rather very abstractly about his experiences and their effects on him.

In the drydown, the partly contrasting impressions "calm down" further and let us fall into an almost oriental bed of warm woody incense notes and minimal fruity sweetness. Here, the theme of Klee's formative trip to Tunisia is taken up and explains the date in the accord ensemble.

The tribute to Paul Klee is not a simple one, but it is a very successful perfume. It represents a theme in the life of an artistic being whose legacy has not only changed our world through over 10,000 works but also makes another dimension experienceable with this fragrance. The abstract dimension.