MILAN — The AI buzz is infiltrating into the artisanal perfumery’s arena, judging by the program of Pitti Fragranze’s upcoming edition presented here Wednesday.
Flanking its traditional showcase of brands and business-oriented vocation, the Florence-based trade show dedicated to niche fragrances is expected to investigate new ways perfumes are created, marketed and perceived by consumers, especially Gen Zers, via arty initiatives and talks.
To be sure, the 21st edition of the show running Sept. 15 to 17 at the Stazione Leopolda location will be themed “Percezione Reinventata,” or “Reinvented Perception” in English, and will display the “Symbiotic Experience” installation intertwining fragrance creation with AI.
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Curated by Italian journalists Paola Gariboldi and Susanna Macchia, the project will see four master perfumers developing scents inspired by digital artworks commissioned from similar artists, rather than relying on memories, muses or nature as starting points of their creative process.
In particular, master perfumer Alberto Morillas has been associated to Los Angeles-based photographer and digital artist Bonnie Tsang; Mane’s senior perfumer Serge Majoullier to artist and NABA lecturer Giovanna Sala; Mane’s young nose Jerome di Marino to digital artist Alex Valentina, while Firmenich’s nose Coralie Spicher was called to reinterpret the work of Gisella Alfieri Sabattini, an Accademia di Brera graduate who started to experiment with digital art and AI after moving to the Silicon Valley.
Adding to the sensorial experience, each artwork will additionally inspire music developed by composer and sound designer Alessandro Meistro, who also deployed both physical instruments and AI in the process.
All these elements will converge into an immersive installation curated by Florence-based digital and mixed reality creative studio Monogrid and that will be animated through the interaction with visitors. Flanking the arty showcase, a series of talks will further investigate the engagement of new tools in fragrance creation as well as the role of social media and unconventional languages in communicating with consumers and spreading information about the world of perfumery.
These panels will be part of a wider schedule, which will include talks on raw ingredients and 45-minute workshops on extraction techniques by Mane, as well as a conversation hosted by fashion and design school Istituto Marangoni, which earlier this year revealed it is to launch courses in cosmetics and fragrances, as reported. Developed with Accademia del Profumo, Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella and Symrise, the courses will debut in September at the school’s campuses in Milan, Florence, Paris and Dubai.
Overall, Pitti Fragranze’s organizers said the upcoming edition will display 170 exhibitors, versus 150 brands showcased last year. These will include 71 new or returning companies and 20 labels that will be presented as part of Spring, the special section dedicated to new names of the industry.
In general, 74 percent of exhibitors will be international, hailing from France, the U.S, Turkey, Germany and Spain, among other countries. Organizers highlighted the increasing interest toward the category and attendance also from Eastern Europe — pointing to exhibitors from Armenia and Romania, for example — as well as from Asia.