Citéco / Banque de France
Turning the sense of smell into a mechanism of discovery
Where does the money come from? What is it used for? Why are there rich and poor people? For its first exhibition entirely designed for children, Citéco chose to start with their questions and answer them through play, experimentation and real-life situations.
Presented from October 18, 2025 to March 8, 2026, «The Mysteries of Money» was an exhibition-game intended for children aged 6 to 12 and their families. Over approximately 400 m², six immersive sequences took them on a journey through the history of money, from barter to contemporary forms of money. Challenges, role-playing games, manipulations, and puzzles transformed a often abstract subject into an accessible adventure.
As part of this project, a French market offered another way to learn: recognizing ten ingredients on a grocery list without looking. Cinquième Sens assisted Citéco in the technical design of this experience, then created and tested the ten scents. The tests led to the selection of scented, intense and rechargeable ceramics, inserted in small, airtight MDF boxes about twelve centimeters in diameter.
Behind the simplicity of the game lay a series of very concrete constraints: making each scent immediately perceptible, avoiding contamination, resisting repeated manipulations, and allowing the teams to maintain the device. The final device included ten ceramic containers, ten 15 ml refills, test media, and recommendations for spacing and refilling.
The result is a game, but also a way of restoring the sense of smell to its ability to observe. The child does not receive information: he or she searches, compares, formulates a hypothesis and begins again. Mediation becomes active because the sense becomes a method.
This project reveals the true scope of Cinquième Sens Studio: creating a scent, of course, but above all devising the precise conditions in which it can be understood, manipulated, and shared.
