kAcumo iDeas
rEcovering the pAst
In kAcumo we want to make visible objects of the past related to the perfume industry, or rather what is considered commercial perfumery. To make as well known as possible creations that in some cases we have no chronological information about, or worse yet, no image of what they were like. Some of these objects may seem modest because they do not belong to the big brands that started this industry, but they belong to our recent past and represent an era.
From the very beginning of this exciting research, we focused on Spanish perfumes, mainly from 1900 to the 1940s. We emphasized brands like Myrurgia, and with varying success on Parera, Gal or Luxana, to give a few examples. What was striking was not only discovering the commercial character of the perfumes, but also something more cultural, with a high artistic sensitivity, about them. Their ethnological essence is obvious, making references to folklore, the tastes of the time such as orientalism, and also the artistic current of the moment like art déco. They also show us the beginnings of the advertising industry, in many cases with slogans that appear so naïve today that they make us smile: "Be beautiful today and more beautiful tomorrow". And of course we were able to admire the impeccable designs not only of the object itself, but of its container and packaging. Designs by artists of the time, illustrators such as Rafael De Penagos (1889- 1954) for the Madrid-based brand Gal, sculptors, or painters like René Magritte who in 1927 made an advertisement for Myrurgia in the magazine "Le Centaure" or Esteve Monegal (1888- 1970) from the Myrurgia brand, to mention just a few. And without forgetting the materials used in manufacturing, the handmade seals, the prestigious glassworks. As a result in some cases these objects have become part of museum collections such as the Museu Nacional D'art de Catalunya in Barcelona or the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid
From a private collection we wanted to show that part of the industrial design that often goes unnoticed by the general public. Modestly and starting with this collection, the idea was to divulge an entire unknown world. A world that has often been undervalued by the general public because of the maelstrom of perfumery today, whose disposable creations are nothing like those that were once were, and will continue to be, objects of art.