As part of the Libeccio series of exhibitions organised by the Nuovo Circolo dei Differenti, now taking place at the Villa Libano in Barga, there is also another public work in progress in most of the gallery rooms which is unseen but could very well have the most long term impact on the visitors to the exhibitions and music concerts.
It is the work of Elisabetta Gianasi who has installed in each room a series of perfumes sourced from the Vaso di Pandora in Barga Vecchia which were specially picked to enhance the viewers experience and hopefully lock into their mind the images seen or the music heard with each particular fragrance.
Some have a definite presence which most people will notice as soon as they enter a room whilst others are more in the background and almost just below the perceptive level but which never the less once registered remains in the memory banks.
In the Green Room -- Head notes of Water Melon, the heart is formed by a floral corbeille of Jasmine, Rose and Bergamot, and the base by the fragrance of Black Grape with fruity accents of peach and apricot, are the amazing ingredients used to recreate the peculiar scent of the pressed grains of the pomegranate. -- source Dr. Vranjes -- Firenze
A well-known idea called the “Proustian phenomenon” proposes that distinctive smells have more power than any other sense to help us recall distant memories.
The theory is named after the French writer Marcel Proust, who in his novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In search of lost time) describes a character vividly recalling long-forgotten memories from his childhood after smelling a tea-soaked madeleine biscuit.
Experts have suggested the special impact of odour on our memory could be related to the proximity of the closeness of our olfactory bulb, which helps us process smells, and the amygdala and hippocampus brain regions which control emotion and memory.