Il pugno di Chanel. Il profumo come arte dello choc riproducibile

Traditionally, perfume is considered a sacred object or a luxury item. Caught between the religion and the useless, it often appears as an anthropological detail, a corollary to a theoretical discourse that should have its roots elsewhere. This essay offers a reversed perspective. Because it is linked to the craftsmanship of the recipe and mass production, perfume is one of the first forms of what Walter Benjamin calls «a technically reproducible work». Perfume arouses suspicion in the most diverse eras because it is perceptually cutting edge: instead of being an outdated and perhaps declining product, it represents the radical proposal of those who, as good materialists, escape the mysticism of the aura and appreciate new alphabets of human experience.