As part of its reopening in 2008, the museum wanted to create an alternative approach, paralleling the main exhibition and presenting an insight into the artistic world of perfumery It gave several internationally renowned contemporary artists carte blanche to develop some of the museum's interior and exterior spaces.
Asking questions of the visitor, emotionally stimulating and challenging them while complementing the museum's main theme, provides the exhibition with a genuine multi-sensory dimension.
The viewpoints from the chemist, the flavorist, industrialist, designer, perfumer, historian and artist served to enrich the overall vision of the different facets of perfumery. Works created by Berdaguer & Péjus, Gérard Collin-Thiebaut, Downsbrough, Brigitte Nahon, Jean-Michel Othoniel and Dominique Thevenin drew inspiration from the world of perfumery or spaces in the new museum: scents and awakening the senses, luxury and design, glasswork and the play of transparencies, industry and materials etc.
Meanwhile, the museum has a policy of contemporary creation based on three axes:
- Launch of a collection of artists' bottles.
- Design of prototypes for functional objects related to perfumery by designers with a presentation of the creation process and the different stages (design, layout, resin, plaster, glass).
- Regular creation of scents by the school of perfumers ISIPCA.