MIAMI, FLA.- In celebration of 100 years of CHANEL N°5, CHANEL has commissioned artist and designer Es Devlin to create a new sculptural installation in response to the iconic fragrance. Free and open to the public from November 30 through December 21, 2021, FIVE ECHOES by Es Devlin transforms Miami Design District's Jungle Plaza into a temporary forest surrounding a monumental, sculptural labyrinth, animated by light, color, and sound. Conceived as a synesthetic translation of the fragrance, FIVE ECHOES illuminates the invisible through its dynamic, multi-sensory environment. After the installation closes, the forest of over 1,000 plants, shrubs, and trees will be replanted in parks throughout Miami-Dade County.
CHANEL N°5 is the expression of Coco Chanel's deep sensory connection to nature. Growing up in the Abbey of Aubazine, Chanel was surrounded by forests. Her development of CHANEL N°5 years later was informed by this sensory history and incorporates the essences of over 20 plants. Noted CHANEL's In-House Perfumer Creator Olivier Polge, "N°5 reflects Gabrielle Chanel's personal life story. And yet, N°5 resonates with all kinds of personalities and cultures." Since launching 100 years ago, the fragrance has been a source of inspiration for artists, actors, and designers and continues to resonate with millions across the globe today. Polge added, "N°5 has not lost any of its modernity. It is still instantaneously distinguishable from all other fragrances. Nevertheless, reinterpretations allow us to situate N°5 in this day and age, as well as to make way for new uses."
Entering FIVE ECHOES, visitors are immediately immersed by the sights and smells of the forest. As visitors move through the trees, they approach a ramp surrounding the labyrinth that they can ascend, reaching a vantage point where they can view the forest treetops and an inner garden of the labyrinth, featuring plants and flowers whose essences are part in the fragrance. Beneath their feet, a circular platform with sundial markings connects visitors to the passage of the sun overhead as well as to the 28 minutes it takes for the molecules in CHANEL N°5 to evaporate, according to their different molecular densities.
After descending the ramp, visitors then enter the labyrinth itself, winding through five concentric pathways. Drawing on the origins of the labyrinth as an ancient Greek initiation dance connecting humans with the earth, the work aims to remind visitors of the symbiotic connection between themselves and the surrounding forest.
At the heart of the labyrinth is a synthesis of sound and light that was developed by Devlin in close collaboration with Polge, building on their previous work together during Devlin's first CHANEL commission, Mirror Maze. The soundscape contrasts the two methods used in the laboratory to analyze the elements of a scent: highly sophisticated gas chromatography molecular weight analysis, versus a profoundly engaged and experienced human sense of smell.
Stated Devlin, "The word labyrinth originally referred to human movement: it was a dance before it became architecture. If our behavior can define our architecture, then perhaps our art and architecture can alter our behavior. If works of art can help us to see ourselves as part of the biosphere and symbiotically fused with it, if we can start to see plants and animals as equal protagonists as ourselves in life, I believe we have a better chance of making the fundamental behavioral shifts that are necessary not only to avoid climate chaos, but also to live in a more just, equitable, and joyful way."
Sustainability and positive environmental impact were key design criteria for the making of FIVE ECHOES. The temporary forest will be replanted in the Miami-Dade County parks in the Gladeview and Camp Matecumbe areas of Miami, while the components of the labyrinth will be repurposed and recycled. One Tree Planted and Miami-Dade County's Million Trees Miami are collaborating with CHANEL to source, plant, care for, and ultimately replant the trees following the work's conclusion. This initiative builds on CHANEL Mission 1.5°, a commission it launched in 2020 to tackle climate change, in line with the targets of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to limit global temperature increases to 1.5° Celsius.
FIVE ECHOES is open to the public from November 30 through December 21, 2021, with free admission. Advance ticketing is strongly encouraged; reservations can be made here:
fiveechoes.chanel.com
Es Devlin is recognized internationally for creating large-scale installations and stage sculptures that combine light, music, and language to elicit emotional responses and shift perspectives in the minds of her audience.
Recent projects include FOREST FOR CHANGE at Somerset House in London, which invited visitors to engage with the UN Sustainable Development Goals; the CONFERENCE OF THE TREES at COP 26, the UN Climate Change Conference this November, where she installed 197 trees as protagonists bearing witness to the decisions 197 countries might make about the future of the planet; and FOREST OF US, which opened at Superblue Miami earlier this year and encourages viewers to feel the symbiotic symmetry between the tree-like bronchial structures within our lungs and the trees around us.The Imperial War Museum commission, I Saw the World End (2020), invited viewers to engage simultaneously with opposing perspectives on Europe's largest LED screen in Piccadilly Circus, while the monumental 360-degree sculpture Memory Palace (2019) mapped shifts in human perspective over 73 millennia. Mirror Maze (2016), the artist's first solo installation in 2016 commissioned by CHANEL, investigated scent's power to transport visitors to distant memories and places.
Devlin's work has been presented in Trafalgar Square, the Serpentine, the V&A and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is the first woman chosen to design the British pavilion at the World Expo, which opened October 2021. Her practice is the subject of the Netflix documentary series "Abstract: The Art of Design" and she was made OBE in 2015.
