MACA×432 PERFUME | Perfumery Workshop

2025.09.27 Saturday 14:00

Location

MACA Art Center

Instructor: 432 PERFUME

In Spit and Image, artists Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė collaborated with 432 PERFUME to create the fragrance installation Mirror Mirror (2025), using scent molecules as the medium. This work seeks to explore the mystery of "doubleness."

The piece’s core inspiration comes from a fascinating chemical phenomenon—the chirality of molecules: two chiral molecules are mirror images of each other, much like left and right hands. Though identical in chemical structure, they are perceived by human senses as entirely different scents due to variations in atomic arrangement. Drawing from this, the artists and perfumers crafted a pair of "twin" scents centered around the chiral molecules (R)-carvone and (S)-carvone—one as cool and fresh as spearmint, the other as warm and spicy as cumin. These scents permeate the first and second-floor exhibition spaces, respectively, creating a sensory atmosphere that is both unified and distinct.

To allow the audience to extend this wondrous fragrance experience beyond the exhibition, MACA, in collaboration with 432 PERFUME, will host a perfumery workshop, guiding participants on a unique journey of scent exploration.

MACA Art Center is a non-profit art institution located in the 798 Art District of Beijing and officially inaugurated its space on January 15, 2022. Occupying a two-story building with a total area of 900 square meters, MACA unites artists, curators, and other art and cultural practitioners from around the world. Through its diverse, ongoing, and collaborative approaches, the Center establishes a new site on the contemporary art scene. Guided by the “work of artists” and backed by interdisciplinary research, the Center aims to bring together a community passionate about art and devoted to the “contemporary” moment so as to respond proactively to our rapidly evolving times.