Maison Francis Kurkdjian presents exhibition Perfume, Sculpture of the Invisible at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris

Celebrating 30 years of pioneering creations by Francis Kurkdjian, the exhibition Perfume, Sculpture of the Invisible is set for October 29 to November 23, 2025 in the Saut du Loup space in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.  

Curated by Jérôme Neutres, this olfactory retrospective pays tribute to the vast diversity of creative domains explored by Francis Kurkdjian. Since his debuts, when he quickly made a name for himself with the resounding success of Le Male – a fragrance he created for Jean Paul Gaultier in1995 – Francis Kurkdjian has always expressed a desire to bring new dimensions to perfume creation.  

The throughline for the exhibition is perfume itself, in all its guises and most unexpected forms, inviting visitors to experience astonishing olfactory moments and reconsider the role of scents in shaping the ways we smell, see and understand art, and indeed the world.  

Revisiting 30 years of creative exploits, the exhibition reprises memorable installations and scented environments in France and around the world. Visitors have a chance to rediscover magical moments presented at the Grand Palais, the Château de Versailles, the Philharmonie de Paris or the West Bund Art & Design contemporary art fair in Shanghai. 

The journey showcases the rich diversity of the many artistic conversations in which Francis Kurkdjian has engaged with creative talents from myriad disciplines, notably his first collaboration in 1999 with Sophie Calle, who commissioned a scent inspired by “the smell of money”. Unveiled in 2003 at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, the fragrance – at the same time “attractive and repulsive” in the words of the perfumer himself – has been recreated for the current exhibition.  

Also featured is a reconstituted recording studio, highlighting Francis Kurkdjian’s intimate collaborations with the performing arts, in particular his friendship and dialogue with cellist and music director of the Orchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä. 

“My hope is that this olfactory journey at the Palais de Tokyo will spark emotions, as well as questions, visions, sensations and new ways of experiencing harmonies with the world by exploring an infinite possibilities of the rich and absolutely unique medium we call perfume”, says Francis Kurkdjian.