Artist Recreates the Scents of Helsinki, Budapest, Paris

Urban Olfactory Installation Art

Vagabondish is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Read our disclosure.

Hungarian born artist Hilda Kozari has created an art installation consisting of three bubbles — one each for Helsinki, Budapest, and Paris – that she says represent what each city smells like. The bubbles are part of an Urban Olfactory Installation exhibit and have been created in collaboration with perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour.

The sense of smell has been a high influence on Korazi’s work. She chose the three cities for sentimental reasons — Helsinki because it has been her home since 1997, Budapest because it’s her former place of residence and Paris because it’s the perfume capital of the world. The bubbles signify her take on the way each city smells, and is not as simple as Paris smells of croissants and Budapest smells of Goulash. Rather each bubble relies on a balance of odors, much like in a perfume, to give the sniffer a unique sensory experience.

So how do you create the smell of a city? Korazi gave Duchaufour her definitions of what made the city, and the perfumer used these definitions as a springboard for ideas for ingredients. For instance, pollution was denoted by combining juniper tar oil to give the impression of smoke, and nutmeg provides the distinctive big city smell of gasoline.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Let's Make Sure You're Human ... * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

Subscribe to Our 'Under the Radar' Newsletter
If you love travel, you're gonna love this!