On 7 November, we welcomed Giovanni Lopez to the Ephèmera Firenze Experience Studio. We explored some of his works through scent, pairing the paintings with fragrances inspired by their atmospheres.
The encounter has stayed with me. I appreciated the artist and the person. Looking back, I keep returning to two words: depth and lightness.
We had introduced the event with a phrase: “Close your eyes. The painting continues.”
After our time together, that phrase seems to hold a question closely connected to my work. How much of what we encounter through our eyes can continue within us through another sense?
In Breaking the Fourth Wall, an enormous owl looms over a small theatre. The difference in scale immediately catches the eye. Then the gaze moves down towards the stage, the figures and the curtain. The theatre seems even smaller beneath the presence that dominates it.
I am interested in this shift: entering an image out of curiosity and, a little later, finding yourself thinking about the fragility of your own routines. About how little it takes for something to interrupt a familiar scene.
For the event, Manuela Ricci Bocciolini created fragrances inspired by the works. The one paired with this painting evoked tapestries and dust, with iris and cypress. A way of approaching the theatre’s atmosphere through its fabrics, the passing of time and a sense of something held in suspension.
Then there is La coda della vita. A monkey, a green landscape, a tail that extends and becomes a tree. Another small monkey appears among the branches.
The image brings thoughts of generations, of what we receive and what we leave behind. The bond takes on a tangible form, almost as though we could trace it with a finger.
In the fragrance, a papyrus accord evoked old paper. I like this choice: alongside the family tree, the possibility of thinking about a page kept over time, a story entrusted to something we can still hold in our hands.
Each pairing grew from a reading of the work. To me, this matters. Interpreting means choosing where to pause, noticing a detail and taking responsibility for giving it space. Someone else might begin with a different element and arrive somewhere else.
In my Scent Identity Design work, this attention accompanies the search for a fragrance that can express the character of a person, a place or a project. It calls for listening, observing and understanding which qualities deserve to become perceptible through scent.
With a work of art, I also feel a responsibility to keep the interpretation open. Fragrance adds another possibility of encounter. Each viewer brings memories, associations and a sensibility shaped by their own history.
Ginevra Barbetti coordinated the event and the interview with Giovanni. Her contribution and Manuela’s work with scent shaped an experience I was happy to share. My thanks go to them both.
What stays with me about Giovanni is that coexistence of depth and lightness. In his images, a surprising transformation can bring us closer to something very serious: time, relationships, the fear of revealing ourselves. And it retains the pleasure of looking, discovering a detail and following our curiosity.
Meeting him made this impression personal, too.
So I return to that small theatre beneath the owl. And I wonder whether, sometimes, noticing something that concerns us takes just this: an image unexpected enough to make us pause, and the time to stay with it.