Robert Frankle

Description

Eau de Venise was conceived as a limited edition for the Al-bunduqiyya project at La Fenice Gallery in Venice, Italy. The project presents art works which deconstruct tourist objects in Venice. The works could be purchased at the gallery enabling tourists to leave Venice with an art work rather than a kitsch tourist object.

The work consists in a perfume bottle made with Murano glass and filled with water from the Grand Canal. It is packaged exactly as if it were an authentic perfume with its own brand identity in order to evoke the luxury items that flood the city's main commercial arteries. The work's title, "Eau de Venise", signifies clearly what it is, but serves as well as an additional reference to perfumes, which in many languages go by synonyms like "Eau de Cologne". The packaging borrows the colours of Venice, dark red and gold, and includes a stylised depiction of the Grand Canal. The writing on the packaging uses the font Jenson classico, a 15th century font invented in Venice and one of the first fonts created after the invention of the printing press when Venice was one of only places to allow a level of press freedom.

Eau de Venise serves as an ironic comment on luxury items and perfume. The Venetian canals are frequently reputed for their pollution and subsequent smells, exactly the opposite of what one would normally put on one's skin as a perfume. In reality, even though Venice does have its own distinctive odour, the perfume does not reek of pollution even over time.

The work was presented in the gallery exactly as it were a perfume in a perfume shop, as a display providing the opportunity to "test" the perfume with perfume testers.