The party planner

Lourenço Viveiros organized the perfume festival, an event that aims to highlight one of the natural aspects of the island, its aromas. An olfactory dimension that includes diverse experiences that appeal to all the senses and wishes to be part of the tourist offer of Madeira.

Tell me a little bit about the perfume festival?
Lourenço Vivieiros: Following many conversations I've had with Nicholas de Barry, he lives on the island for two years now, this idea came up. I organized several events throughout these seventeen years, and then we thought why not draw an event connected to this whole universe of perfume? We started talking, writing and transformed it all in the format of the first edition of the festival of the perfume. It is a set of events that have different objectives. In the exhibition of paintings associated with an aroma you want to show the mixing of the paint across with fragrances. Also has an educational component, since we have a group of young people from local schools, is an act of pedagogy in which the master will give a lesson introducing them in the art of perfumes. In Reid's Hotel we organized master classes for a more adult audience, is a format for the art of building perfumes and still we had another initiative which was a dinner fragrant, in which Nicolas de Barry created a bouquet with the chef for each of the dishes. We will hold a ceremony perfume, inspired by a Japanese tradition. And we will also be presenting the perfume "isle of Madeira", for marketing reasons the name appears in English, since it is a language that predominates in visitors coming to the island. It is a scent that mimics the region using its local flavors. We do not want to stop here, we have a project that has a timeline and will be extended, it is intended that during the year there will be lengthened events on this giant universe of cosmetics and perfumes, there is still the possibility of workshops. Since the island of Madeira has great ingredients for the perfume, there is the idea of creating a production site. Another initiative involves Madera wine for its olfactory dimension, we contacted Chris Blandy who was fascinated with the idea, and so, blind olfactory tastes will be held of a certain type of wine.

How you link Madeira wine with perfume? There is an obvious olfactory strand, but in this initiative, what will be the link?
LV: They put up ingredients in wine that expand its olfactory dimension. As is the case with citrus liqueurs, type limonchello, contreaux, liqueurs of roses, chartreuse and there is a fragrant wine, which is the Martini. Let's start with the Boal 1920 and when it smells that wine, we realize its aromatic complexity, as it is very old what stays are the spices notes.

Addressing the olfactory issue, as a rule, on a day-to-day we forget this ability to capture the world through the smell.
LV: Paulo David, who is a renowned architect and my friend, in a conversation he said he thought this olfactory universe is interesting because today, almost there is a dictatorship of the visual. The senses were forgotten. The blind man is treated like a patient; someone who does not have the ability to smell we do not considered it may have a serious illness. From what I've read, the process of man's civilization, most in Western culture because Eastern cultures have never forgotten this dimension, the scent was no longer part of our lives. In the middle Ages, due to the phenomenon of plague, people thought that the disease spreads through the bath, not only, but also, and lost the pleasure of the bathing which was closely associated with fragrance. There is a large gap that allowed it to be seen as evil. The recovery in the western world makes no one escape the imposition of the perfume, which is part of the personal hygiene of the people, is no longer an elitist product, it is democratized. All people use perfume, which is extremely important.

The perfume festival has the particularity of being associated with areas that we never associated to fragrances such as an art exhibition, or even a dinner.
LV: When we drew up a dinner, and used cinnamon, we forget that it is a fragrant spice; the fact is that there is a set of ingredients that we do not connect to the perfume and cosmetics as they are associated to food without any risk. The use of pepper, fennel, and the use of herbs is a way to perfume the cooking. We lost this sense of education and culture, when Nicolas de Barry participated in the preparation of the dishes, the chef already had all the sauces, meats, fish, he limited himself to use ingredients that are also aromatic and often are included in the recepies. He used a pallet of elements that seem to be reserved only for perfumery, when they are not. In painting there was a satirical rendering cross, we used all the senses, the five and not just one, we may not realize, but use them even if unconsciously. Objectively we lost this culture of consciously use the smell and in some cases is good, but not in others. One of the other proposals we wish to present are the fragrant tours. Challenge people in an objective, concrete to volunteer to an olfactory experience. It's different from when we visited a garden without any indication, because the idea is to awaken people to this understanding, there is a new mindset. It is a dimension that we want to introduce the cultural offer to our visitors and exploitation directed to the perfume, to the aromas.