Droog at Manifesta12, Palermo June 14 – 16, 2018
Botanical compositions and perfumes took over Palermo city centre, in the area of Fontana Pretoria.
During June 14 – 16, the opening days of Manifesta12, designers Frank Bruggeman and Alessandro Gualtieri | The Nose were commissioned by Droog to create perforative installations.
Knowingly or unknowingly, directly or indirectly the public became carriers of the local flora and spread them, possibly around the globe.
THE FLORILEGIUM
The Florilegium seeks to record collections of plants from within a particular place. Designer Frank Bruggeman and perfumer Alessandro Gualtieri | The Nose were cataloguing the flora of Palermo and tracing back the Greek, Roman, African and Arabic origins. The Bottle Tree and The Dragon Blood Tree are examples of trees that are to be found nowhere else in Europe.
In their collaboration, on the occasion of Manifesta12, they took different approaches but the idea of pollination is cen- tral in both their performative installations.
WEARABLE BOTANICAL COMPOSITIONS
Frank Bruggeman, a designer with a special interest in nature, explored the flora in and around Palermo and collected several seeds, flowers, plants and roots. These cuts were be the material used for large and small botanical compositions. These were distributed in public space during the opening days of Manifesta12 and could be worn or used as corsage or small bouquet. The wearer of the corsage contribute in that way to the further pollination of the nature of the island.
Click here to view the website of Florilegium via Frank
ATTRACTING SCENTS
Alessandro Gualtieri, a perfume creator based in Amsterdam, has created scents that centred around attraction and rejection.
In order to reproduce and diffuse their own species, plants use scent and flowers to attract pollinators. The scent of pollen is the most ancient floral aroma and beatles the oldest pollinators. Beatles are attracted to both the pollen as well as the smells of rotting and excrement.
The perfumes created by Gualtieri was distributed in different ways around the city of Palermo during the opening days of Manifesta12. The smells were in conversation with one another and with the public who encountered them directly or indirectly and carried out these scents further around the city.
The main performance took place at the Fontana Pretoria, where the scent of the Zagara, the citrus flowers, was distributed through the heart of Palermo.
