Terra Incognita
Terra Incognita is a limited edition series of wheel-thrown ceramic perfume bottles by Giulia Cosenza, to be launched during Collectible fair 2024. Inspired by an emotion or state of mind, each piece is the crystallisation into shape of a feeling.
Perfume bottles as we know them are mostly made of glass, allowing us to see the content. Using ceramics is a design choice which hints at the difficulty to clearly see and access emotions. A landscape of bottled up feelings was created, where each perfume bottle embodies and “contains” three main emotions: regret, closeness, compassion.
COMPASSION The more we are compassionate to others the more we allow compassion and kindness towards ourselves: a feeling that spreads like a ripple effect on water. The bottle embodies this dynamic flowing emotion.
CLOSENESS Round, enveloping and welcoming as an embrace. Closeness is shaped into a spherical bottle that we want to hold and cherish.
REGRET Because not all feelings are positive ones...An edgy tall shape with sharper corners, like difficult things that make us grow and evolve.
photography © Laure van Rooij
custom made wooden display © Kasper Boelens
custom concept scents © Clarissa Leyting Scent Studio
graphics & spatial set up © Michela Di Saverio Derein
An emotional landscape of ceramic perfume bottles which embody and “contain” three main emotions: regret, closeness, compassion.
The project addresses the limited scope that design has by definition when it comes to expressing something as complex as an emotion: sculpting it into matter will definitely make it visible, tangible and tactile but what about the evolution, mystery and multiplicity that each complex feeling comes with? To create a special experience to celebrate the launch, I teamed up with Clarissa Leyting (read more about Clarissa and her atelier Scent Studio at the end of this article) on the development of three concept fragrances to be experienced exclusively during Collectible fair and corresponding to the three "bottled up” emotions. Visitors will be able to see, experience and smell what these emotions feel like. Smell is often experienced as the strongest sense when it comes to memories and feelings, the project wants to place emphasis on the way that scent is perhaps one of the few “design materials'' that will evolve, triggering our emotions in an ever changing way. If the bottle is the start of telling a story, the scent is what allows for its complexity to unfold and reach the senses before the mind, the emotions before the thoughts and the individual memories before the formal nature of design.
"I was looking for an activation experience that would carry the idea further, beyond the formal language of design and to a more subconscious and emotional level. The concept fragrances developed for the fair are very personal ones: what I hope is that the vessel as the container of this idea will stay with the collector, while they will be able to “fill it up” with their own favourite scents, hence personal memories, associations, feelings."
Terra Incognita investigates territory as an emotional landscape, one to be discovered by feeling and experienced through the eyes as much as through the nose.
AN EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE OF BOTTLED UP FEELINGS IS ONE OF REGRET.COMPASSION.CLOSENESS. IT IS ONE OF REFLECTION AND ACCEPTANCE OF VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE TERRITORIES OF THE MIND. LET YOUR EYES REST AND YOUR NOSE SMELL. THE SENSES BEFORE THE MIND, THE FEELINGS BEFORE THE THOUGHTS, THE MEMORIES BEFORE THE FORMAL LANGUAGE OF DESIGN.
A LETTER TO THE RECEIVER
Dear Collector,
This is a collection of relational, emotional and metaphorical objects.
I hope to gift you a sculptural manifestation of three feelings: closeness, compassion and regret.
In my case it was important to make them tangible metaphors, a minuscule monument to emotions that we all feel but are not always able to access, accept and process.
I INVITE YOU TO DISCOVER YOUR OWN TERRA INCOGNITA. These vessels are empty containers of an idea. What I wish is for you to “fill them up” with your own favourite scents, hence personal memories, associations and feelings, creating your own emotional landscape.
DETAILS & PROCESS
Bottles: Each perfume bottle is entirely handmade by Giulia Cosenza at her atelier in Rotterdam - wheel thrown with reclaimed cream white locally sourced clay, fully glazed with glossy finish and fired at stoneware temperature.
Perfume: Thanks to the help of Clarissa Leyting (*), 3 custom concept scents were created especially for the fair as “activation” experience. The scents will not be commercialised but will be available for visitors to immerse themselves in the project by smelling the emotions that each bottle embodies: Closeness, Compassion and Regret. (*founder of Scent Studio , Clarissa’s mission is to bringing memories and feelings alive by helping people discover the personal meaning perfume has for them).
