Right image (c) 2021. La Fabrique Culturelle video clip on Télé-Québec : Sculpter l'invisible: Alexandra Bachand, artiste parfumeur

"Through the white windows of the workshop-boutique, there is a formula book, a composition organ, a gray stone angel, a geranium stretching towards the sun, and a few dabs that a pretty cursive writing has taken care to name. There, bottles in rows and pipettes in bouquets; in a corner, a pale hydrangea head waits patiently for its round petals to dry next to oblong boxes signed Alexandra Bachand. "Everything begins with a dream.»
-Isabelle Naessens, Henkel Media Editor

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To sum up the last ten years of my artistic odyssey in one sentence, I would say: "I dream at night not in colors, but in smells! And sometimes, in synesthesia, both at the same time!" Perfume is a complex know-how that requires several years and even a lifetime to master its beauty. The work of a “Nose” is a long, solitary journey. 

I took a side road before going to France to learn fine perfumery. I undertook an artistic path, that of Fine Arts at the University. I realize today that having studied the history of art and that having learned to practice my hand in an academic way to model, shape, draw, engrave, photograph or paint, has greatly opened the way for me to then learn to formulate, compose, know how to adjust the harmony of the chords that take shape during the creation of a perfume. This is why I take pleasure in carrying out by hand in the workshop, each of the stages from the ideation to the visual, then to the formulation, the manufacture and finally to the bottling of the perfume. This design work is at the heart of what binds me to perfume. It's my way of bringing it to life in a way.

I find meaning in my work, walking off the beaten track as much as possible and rooting myself in the beauty and history of my region. I advocate a perfumery centered on the full creative freedom of the perfumer as an artist in his own right. I like that time stands still, that perfume is at the heart of a poetic vision and not a commercial one. I like to have fun perceiving perfume as an invisible medium that I try to sculpt to give it an aesthetic shape with meaning, a story. I favor writing that leaves room for this slowness and that allows me to draw inspiration from my childhood memories or simply from the present moment. Smell is an extremely valuable sense. It opens the door to a reading and an emotional understanding of the world around us.

In parallel with La Grange du Parfumeur's collection, I compose and imagine olfactory exhibitions within museum installations allowing the art of perfume to pay tribute in particular to History and heritage, by awakening emotions and memories, like a real time machine.

On a daily basis, La Grange is much more than a workshop. It is a place rich in stories that emerge day after day, during encounters with the public. All these fragrant moments nourish me and it is a pleasure to share this art by your side.

To discover all the art olfactory exhibitions, Read more here.