The Olfactory esthetic
A journey to a place filled with novel perspectives and unexplored sensitivity.
“When nothing subsists of an old past, after the death of people, after the destruction of things, alone, frailer but more enduring, more immaterial, more persistent, more faithful, smell and taste still remain for a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, on the ruin of all the rest, bearing without giving way, on their almost impalpable droplet, the immense edifice of memory.”
- Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time
At the same time as it pursues its main mission of promoting the memory and work of Louis Braille in France and throughout the world, the Louis Braille Museum is engaged in artist creation and research on the five senses, as it builds and promotes its collections. Moreover, the museum's themes serve the museum's mission and its efforts to raise public awareness of visual impairment and Braille writing.
One of the experiments carried out is to make visitors recognize the characteristic smells linked to the different pieces of the museum and to the Louis Braille environment by means of scent boxes (or sorbarod) designed by the creators of Givaudan and which can range from hot metal to the smell of leather.
Exposition olfactive "dessine moi un arc-en-ciel"
Les 60 ans du musée Louis Braille
Les lettres cachées du musée Louis Braille