Landscape Memories 2026: Ceramic Sculptures of Puglia
Coco Brun's Landscape Memories installation at Lake Como Design Festival 2026 features three ceramic sculptures diffusing distinct scents evoking Puglia's sea, earth, and vegetation.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Landscape Memories is an olfactory art installation capturing Puglia's landscapes.
- Created by French designer Coco Brun alongside perfumer Laurène Sourdillon.
- Three ceramic sculptures replicate the forms of caves and underground geology.
- Scents are diffused via ORB dry-air devices representing Marino, Terra, and Bosco.
French artist and designer Coco Brun has unveiled Landscape Memories, an olfactory installation that translates the southern Italian landscapes of Puglia into three ceramic sculptures emitting distinct fragrances. Developed during her participation in the D.Puglia residency curated by Gordana Zgonjanin, the project draws inspiration from the region's coastline, exploring how coastal erosion and the dynamic relationship between land and sea shape the terrain.
The physical forms of the three sculptures are derived from caves and subterranean geological formations. Their intricate surface patterns originate from 3D scans of Puglian caves, brought to life through ceramic extrusion developed and produced in Milan alongside SuperForma. A programmed layer-by-layer printing technique allows the clay's natural behavior during fabrication, drying, and firing to create visible drips, twists, and unique surface irregularities.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
The sculptures are built on a modular system allowing for various assembly configurations, complete with integrated openings that facilitate airflow and fragrance circulation. Coco Brun collaborated with Givaudan Paris perfumer Laurène Sourdillon to craft three signature scents: Marino, Terra, and Bosco, representing the sea, earth, and Mediterranean vegetation respectively. Visitors can experience each scent individually within its corresponding sculpture.
Integrating ceramic sculpture with olfactory design represents an innovative contemporary approach that challenges traditional spatial exhibition. By engaging multiple senses, artists can evoke geographical memories and natural topography without relying solely on visual stimuli, creating an immersive ephemeral experience influenced by environmental variables.
As the individual aromas circulate simultaneously through the exhibition venue, they overlap to form an unprecedented fourth olfactory impression, shifting dynamically with air currents, visitor positioning, and timing. The fragrances are dispersed via ORB, a dry-air olfactory diffusion device engineered by Genius Loci and embedded within the sculptures. Each rechargeable sphere features an artisan-crafted, perforated casing modeled after organic natural forms found in the landscape.
The installation debuted at Villa Saporiti as part of the Border / Confine exhibition during the Lake Como Design Festival 2026, curated by Giovanna Massoni and Francesca Prandelli. The project is slated for further expansion, with redesigned sculptures, textile artworks, and graphic pieces planned for upcoming presentations throughout 2027.
Source: designboom
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