Louvre Museum
Bringing the works beyond the walls of the museum
Not everyone has the opportunity to enter the Louvre. Distance, language, knowledge of the museum’s codes, or certain disabilities can keep works at a distance. The Louvre therefore wanted to reach out to these audiences and offer them a more direct, more sensitive encounter, one that is less dependent on the mere gaze of the expert.
As part of a skills sponsorship, Cinquième Sens developed the olfactory components of several poly-sensory kits with the museum. The collaboration has expanded to include new themes over the course of the projects: the Seasons of Arcimboldo, childhood, and Madame de Pompadour in 2015, then Egypt in 2017 and the arts of Islam in 2019. These initiatives allow visitors to discover works outside the museum by combining sensations with cultural mediation.
Each theme calls for a specific olfactory palette: the four seasons for Arcimboldo; chocolate, madeleine and a childhood scent; a fragrant evocation of Madame de Pompadour. The Egypt box explores, in particular, the desert and the Nile. The one dedicated to the arts of Islam brings together incense, saffron, orange blossom, rose and mint. The scents thus provide the mediators with concrete tools to awaken memory and open up exchanges around the works.
The mediation sequences associated with the kits facilitate the expression, interaction, and overcoming of certain linguistic or cultural barriers. The intelligence of the project lies in this articulation between accessibility and exigency: the sensation does not erase the knowledge about the work; it prepares a path for it.
With the Louvre, Cinquième Sens affirms a founding conviction: the senses can bring works closer to those who are distant from them. The sense of smell then becomes a language of transmission, at the service of a more open and vibrant culture.
