Exhibition — War Flowers (2017-2020)
EXHIBITION DATES AND LOCATIONS
www.warflowers.ca
Below, Interview with Alexandra Bachand, the exhibition's perfumer and curator of the olfactory component.
Commissioner: Viveka Melki Director: Alexander Reford
Artists : Alexandra Bachand: Artist perfumer and curator of the olfactory art section
Mark Raynes Roberts: crystal artist sculptor
Collaborators : Céline Arseneault, Normand Dumont, Claude Langlois
10 alcoves reveal the themes which each evoke the symbolism of flowers picked from the battlefields and which clearly underline human nature in wartime.
Alexandra Bachand was inspired by these themes and the impressions she received during her honorary journey in the Somme in France and Belgium, to write 10 olfactory poems that dialogue with each of the perfumes she has composed in order to highlight an olfactory memory of history and thus offer visitors an intimate and emotional immersive experience.
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Innocence I Jean Brillant I Daisy
Mother's Love I Julia Drummond I English Daisy
Grace I Talbot Papineau I Rose
Resolve to Win I Percival Molson I Columbine
Devotion I Edward B. Savage I Lavander
Solitude I Alexander Y. Jackson I Heather
Memory I Elsie Reford I Forget-me-not
Healing I Georges Vanier I Stitchwort
Eternal Sleep I John McRae I Poppy
Olfactory memory: Resolve to win
“At dawn, a scattering of the male odour of tobacco and alcohol and galvanizes the determined troops.”
– Alexandra Bachand
« In the WAR Flowers exhibition context, I was immersed in a world of great contradictions. In the hope of revealing the perfume of flowers from more than 100 years, inspired by their symbolic and by the universe of these honoured women and men, I composed these olfactory stories as a tribute to their history, while adding my personal interpretation of the great themes of human nature. In that sense, I hope having revealed all the depth of emotional elements involved those very ones who are the body and the mind of this exhibition.»

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Launching / Canadian War Museum, Ottawa (CA) 2017
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Launching / Campbell House Museum, Toronto (CA) 2018
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Launching / Vimy Visitor and Education Center, Vimy (France) 2018
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Launching / Museum Chateau Ramezay, Montreal (CA) 2018 - 2020