Interviews

Interview with Angelo Orazio Pregoni of O'Driu

05/18/15 04:04:10 

by: Serguey Borisov

Atrbazan.com     The Perfume Refrence

At Esxence 2015 you could not escape Angelo Orazio Pregoni's provocation, this time in Pop-Kitsch art form: it reigned over the cafeteria tables by its 600 kg metallic monster that displayed some picture in the center and also carried tuna fish bodies and hind quarters of animals (both preserved in some sort of resin to prevent the odors from coming through). Every event morning Angelo Orazio went to the art piece to install some perfume bottles into it. I joined him in order to know more about his ideas implemented into the art installation made of reforged steel, meat, fish, resins, and two perfumes to resemble both meat and fish.

“The provocation is the only antibody to consumerism! We all are neither fish nor fowl because we suffer a constant industrialization of thought becoming unwitting actors in a model sub-cultural kitsch.”—Press release of Pleasure Factory

Serguey Borisov: OK, sorry for being so straight and dumb. On your “Neither fish nor fowl” art installation I could see the meat and fish—what's the central piece of the installation? I mean the metallic something and photo with you in center of it.

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: We created a performance in which I used very popular food like meat and tuna, but presented them in a layout of a very niche restaurant, to create a different language and to create a kitsch dish. Here people have to use their own brains to decide whether is it good or not good, but without any reference of marketing. The picture in the central part is just a photo I took in one of my performances. There was a spot and episode where two persons were speaking about a perfumes, throwing away their dresses simultaneously. And when I saw this picture, I realized that it is very similar to the The Calling of Saint Matthew (La Vocazione de San Mattheo) by Caravaggio (1599). The picture of Caravaggio depicts tax collectors (and Matthew Levi is one of them), some young armed men, Jesus Christ and Saint Peter. Jesus is calling Matthew: “Follow me,” and pointed at him. So publican Matthew Levi (the sinner by his occupation) is only person who could see the light of holiness—and the next moment he will follow Jesus to save his soul.

The Calling of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio, 1599

So strange that the photo of my performance and the Caravaggio picture are so similar: by people's postures, by their gestures, by the light and even by clothing details. I found this amusing enough to use in my installation.

Similarly, in his irreverent alternative photo version A.O. Pregoni himself calls to holiness—the skill to be free from patterns and schemes—out of which there are only half-lights and shadows.

Serguey Borisov: Who is Marco Ventura, whose name is mentioned in the text as your co-author?

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Marco Ventura is a Milanese sculptor. He is made this brutal sculpture out of 600 kilos of metal, the monster that looks like a crab with a giant claws, and it's also the ugly frame for the photo we discussed before. The metal frame, this is the allegory of marketing. It looks so ugly that fish and meat is all that you want to think of by your brain. There are also two fragrances—Fish and Meat—and their design was made with tinfoil of preserved tuna in olive oil and preserved meat.

If you spray it on your skin, you will smell fishy, just like a canned fish, and another smells of smoked spiced meat, for some time, and then the composition will develop in some other direction, for you to find some herbs, some flowers and spices, some woods, etc. Both fragrances were created specially for the art installation.

The idea is—if you are brave enough, you could go through the marketing barrier. Opening notes of fish and smoked meat were created as the barrier. Never judge perfume by its advertising, or pictures, or opinions. There's perfume inside—and beauty is always personal, not common.

Serguey Borisov: I quite like both ideas and perfumes, as well. The meat is very smoky and spicy first, so it resembles of Black by Comme des Garçons.

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: These are two perfumes that are typical of my creations. You remember the first part of my creative story—I was making the limited editions of perfumes. All were hand-made, and contained a lot of natural ingredients, and it was out of industrialization. And what I like to underline—that meat and fish of the installation are REAL THINGS. I put those pieces for 2 weeks into chemical solution, and then—into special resin. You can touch them!

Serguey Borisov: No-no-no! It's art! And …

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Don't worry! Touch it! It's soft and elastic like it's real meat and fish! So, besides the art installation, I am presenting here in Esxence 2015 four new perfumes.

Serguey Borisov: Four perfumes? Are you in a hurry? Isn't it too many?

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Well, it could be the last perfumes for me.

Serguey Borisov: Are you going to quit perfumery and live on a tropical island?

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: No. I'm going to launch a new perfume line in the near future, actually. And the name of this new limited edition would be something like KMA, Kiss My Ass. And every perfume of Kiss My Ass limited edition will have a typical name of the perfumery world.

But for now, we better would discuss the perfumes that are presented at Esxence. The first one was created with my three pupils (Paolo Bazzani, Stefano Macaione and Julìa Papas), its name is Satyricon. The fragrance was inspired by the eponymous text by ancient Roman writer Petronius Arbiter and tells this ancient story in an olfactory way. The story was quite scandalous as it tells about sex and orgiastic events. All my pupils are from Wet Dream which is my perfume academy …

Serguey Borisov: Wait. The name of academy is Wet Dream?

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Yes. A dream is the only place you do not need anything or anybody to become creative. You're creative with your self and your brain and your body. Here, smell it [sprays perfume onto blue feather]

Serguey Borisov [smelling]: Why did you call it Satyricon? It smells so far from sex. It's gourmand-like … sweet, powdery, fruity, spicy, a bit boozy …

 Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Because orgies are not only about sex. The orgiastic perfume should contain a lot of people having all sorts of pleasures: they are eating food and sweets, drinking wine, enjoying some bodies and flowers, having everything precious, intoxicating and rare. The smell is very Roman, very Latin. It mixes roses, cloves, incense, and some fruits marmalade. But also—later—you'll find some animalic sweat as it should been smelled at orgies. Some goat furs.

“… the Nose of O’DRIÙ is a satyr metaphorically, the unexpected element that invades the stage and, euphoric by sensations, breaks all the rules, derides the establishment, controverts the authority to unleash a whirlwind of vital, fertile and sensual energy.”—Press-release of Pleasure Factory

I don't know if I'm going to sell the new trio, it's just a project. First of all, the packaging is very unusual and strange, I created it with Marco Ventura—it was all made with glass, resins and metal recycled, and every piece is unique and different.

Serguey Borisov: Every piece is ugly but unique.

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Yes, absolutely. Ugly but unique, like Milano. This is a 'V' sign made of metal sticks, the sign means Vendetta in Italian or Revenge. And also it looks like a Devil's horns. And the bolts for stoppers, and second packaging is also a recycled carton, you should know what's this …

           

Serguey Borisov: It looks like the tube that you see when you're out of toilet paper.

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Exactly. And we reuse it, keeping our world clean and tidy. That's how we gave it the second life. The perfume project named Ven-Det-Ta is one perfume in three acts. It's not the usual Head-Heart-Base scheme, but three different perfumes that tell you a story of revenge.

In the first part you need the revenge because you're very angry and maybe sad, and you want to revenge blindly, whatever it takes. The second part is more about plotting the revenge, thinking how to do it best way, and the last part is the act of revenge itself.

Serguey Borisov: So you divided the sweet revenge onto three parts, like the first part is emotional, the second is rational, and the third is active part?

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Yes. And I created it with another design, it's not so typical for O'Driu. The perfume is like a fruit sweet cake, three layers of fragrance—you could mix them together, or use separately. You could use the first in the morning, then use the second perfume before lunch and the third by night.

All of them have sweet ingredients because when you are going to poison somebody, you should mask the poison into something pretty and sweet. The first perfume, Ven, is a sweet boozy and flowery spicy perfume for that reason. It goes different directions: flowers above spices, nice pretty vanilla and animalic castoreum.

The second is Det, the emotional part. Cold, and fresh, and very spicy. This is clear perfume, very lucid—you know what you want. It's made out of sweet red fruits and tobacco, and went up more sweet due to a sweet flower fruity note, benzoin and cedarwood.

The third perfume, Ta, starts with a nice watermelon and berry-like note, but soon goes into a woody Oakmoss and cedarwood direction with laurel and a camphorous tuberose accent, where the perfume settles into warm and oversaturated oakmoss base notes. The fruity watery start notes could be smelled from a distance—it's almost a childish feeling of happiness.

Serguey Borisov: Seems like the perfumes are kind of similar—did you use a common base or what?

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Well, it could be said like this. But actually the first and the last perfumes of the trio are very different while the second serves as a link between them, so it shares their features.

Serguey Borisov: Actually, I am glad to say that I like your perfumes even more now than the first time I met you and your perfumes. Was it three or four years ago?

Angelo Orazio Pregoni: Thank you! I create in a different style, there are a lot of people who love my first perfumes. I just don't like to create in the same way forever, while there's some common style that one could feel in all of my O'Driu perfumes. This is a different project, because I need to provoke people with a different packaging and style. And it's possible to discern my Vendetta perfumes from any other brand.

P.S. In the time of preparing this text, we found that O'Driu brand has just launched the first limited edition of Kiss My Ass perfume. The series of 16 numbered and autographed flacons is named Scent and Chemistry.

O'Driu Ven
Cherry, Rum, Cumin, Castoreum, Vanilla, Ylang-ylang, Tonka beans, Sandalwood, Pineapple, Geranium.

O'Driu Det
Red fruits, Tobacco, Peanuts, Woods, White flowers, Benzoin and Basil.

O'Driu Ta
Strawberry, Melon, Tuberose, Cedarwood, Oakmoss and Laurel.

Photo from the event: Evgeniya Chudakova; official photos and illustrations: O'Driu