MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION : SR Contemporary Art
In honour of the Berlinale 2019, Urban Scents presents "MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION", an exhibition in collaboration with New York artist Sabina Streeter.
Since the creation of the brand in 2014, Marie Urban – Le Febvre designs limited "Scent Editions" in collaboration with artists of all disciplines. Together they conceive exclusive art projects that take you on a unique visual and olfactive journey. Collaborations include "Au Nom de la Terre”, "We Exist to Connect" and "Vintage Spirit", with Michel Granger, “Tape Over” and Francois Cadière respectively.
Marie and Sabina decided to work together on a new art project, uniting the elegance of the French perfumery with paintings and drawings under the eponymous title “Magnificent Obsession”.
This collaboration was largely inspired by the cinematic universe of Douglas Sirk, the ‘Master of Melodrama’ known for his lushly beautiful and supremely stylish films evoking the distinctive glamour of 1950’s Hollywood.
Conceived as an homage to Sirk’s philosophy of deliberately breaking realist conventions and creating artificial worlds through an excessive use of mise-en-scène, the perfume as well as the artwork play with similar contrasts and thus create a modernized reinterpretation of great classics.
Sabina Streeter was fortunate enough to meet the legendary Douglas Sirk, whose films inspired her for this exhibition.
Sirk, born Detlef Sierk(1897-1987), fled Germany in 1938 to the United states and established his career as a director in Hollywood. Sirk’s work has been a tremendous influence on succeeding filmmakers such as Jean Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder,, Pedro Almodovar, Lars von Trier and Todd Haynes and is highly respected and admired by cinephiles around the world.
His poetically dramatic movies and subversive titles such as “Written on the Wind”, “All that Heaven Allows”, “Interlude”, “Imitation of Life” and “Tarnished Angels” provide the perfect aesthetic for her artwork which often draws from cinematic references .
