Interview with 

Creative 

Antonio Gardoni

• Can you tell us about yourself and your background?

I grew up helping my grandfather building airplanes models, drawing and creating stories.
In my work I daily find the opportunity to explore theoretical and practical aspects, visions and practicalities, imagination and boundaries. I find great pleasure in dealing with construction materials, raw materials, understanding their limits, nature and their potential. I spend my time challenging and shaping the reality that surrounds me in its physical and experiential aspects realizing the fact that each project is like telling a story where different characters and plots meet and interact with each other. Not all the stories are explicit and explanations sometimes are difficult or redundant, silence often wins against noise.

• Describe your work in your own words.

My work is all about the process, the understanding of it and the magic of repeating the same gestures/activities over and over. The process is never ending and it’s a fluid ever-changing fight between elements and thoughts.
Sometimes I feel like little Max when he finds “Where the wild things are”, it’s a great journey and every time I have to meet the “creatures”, seduce them and party with them. When I come back home for dinner I take a small smelly vial of my experiments/experience.

• Your brand, what are its themes and what was your goal in creating the brand?

I never think about my brand as a brand but more like the result of a daily process/activity, a natural extension of my interests, my life, my pleasures, my fears. The success of Bogue-profumo is in the possibility to interact with amazing and passionate people around the world, sharing the process, the result, the love.


 

• Does your cultural background have influenced your work?

I guess that my background as much as my present-ground influence each of my action and each of my heart beats. I’m a curious person and often not 100% satisfied about the results, perfumery is such a difficult subject to talk about for me. I guess all my wandering activities are part of one big picture but I’m too close to it to see it clearly.


 

• What is your view on the scent landscape and where it may be headed?

It’s amazing how scent is becoming a key subject in many different fields, I find fascinating the amount of new brands launching new fragrances more and more often. It looks as if the perfume is leaving its shelf and it’s creating awareness together with unexpected interdisciplinary experiments. Art, music, videos, photography, communication are challenged by this untouchable cloud of perfect chemistry and “the perfume” is becoming scent, even odour. The perfumer is not an isolated mysterious creature hiding in an ivory tower anymore he is becoming a communicator, a maker, an experimenter. There is a lot do to challenge the perception of a lot of traditional perfume users but now I can see that perfume is definitely in the air as a concept, as an idea, as a chance.
The work of the Institute of Art and Olfaction in L.A. is shaking boundaries and modifying preconceived ideas, the Scent Culture Institute in Zurich is scientifically and anthropologically exploring scent cultures, the Smell Festival in Bologna every year creates new stories and experiences, more and more festivals, lectures, exhibitions, training courses are appearing opening the doors to a sense that has a lot yet to say. Bloggers, writers, reviewers and influencers are exploring the language to describe and shape this new scented universe, independent stores are investing in the unknown and their customers are happily confused. I smell amazing projects like BAT (Zoologist) created by Dr. Ellen Covey and I see people like Luca Maffei who is mastering the process with a new relaxed and professional approach. Josh Lobb is showing that a twisted reality can be the most appealing one and Vero Kern is simply combining marvels.
I have somehow tried to shake this subject with art projects and collaborations with other artists/perfumers. CADAVRE EXQUIS is one my latest side-projects developed with Bruno Fazzolari; it was a real gamble, an adventure and a joy finding out that we can do things together and hopefully share more. I like to think about the future of perfumery as an open source system where communication will flow easily and the struggle for the perfect formula will be a subject to discuss with friends while drinking a proper gin-tonic.

• Do you have any scent memories from your childhood?

I guess I have a lot of scent memories but I never decided to do a list of them, probably I don’t even know how to give names to them. It’s a language limitation, you are a little person and you don’t know how to call things; I luckily still can’t do it. When I’m older I will probably find time to recall my scent memories to cuddle up with, coming to a full circle and maybe finding a meaning.


 

• When did you take interest in perfume making?

In 2010 I started playing with odours mainly fascinated about extraction systems and I became a bit obsessed in collecting, creating, cataloging raw materials. Mixing happened as consequence or as an accident like playing with words and
ideas. I’m learning every day unexpected wild things and new tricks to play with, the more I mix and think the more my approach becomes abstract. I have no clear idea where all this will take me but I’m really enjoying the journey.

 

• Where can we find your work?

You can find my work in few stores around the world as I’m trying to keep the commercial production extremely small or you can contact me directly by email. Growing as a brand and increasing the number of bottles per year is a big debate for me, I’m a bit of a control freak and I deeply enjoy the personal relationship I have with my clients and retailers. At the moment I’m following a sort of unwritten policy of maximum one store per country and there are still a lot of places where you can’t find my bottles but there is no pressure and no hurry, the real curious one sooner or later will be able to experience my experiments wherever he is.

 

• Lastly is there anything else you would like to say?

Make love not war