L’Air du Temps

Active in the fields of performance, music, and visual arts, PRICE develops a body of work in which different spaces overlap: the theater stage, the club, the fashion runway, or the exhibition space. Thus “L’Air du Temps (air conditions),” the monumental installation presented in the Poma room, is to be understood as an installative version of the performance “L’Air du Temps (breathing my beloved in),” performed successively at the Gessnerallee Theater in Zurich and then at the Arsenic in Lausanne in February 2024.

The olfactory installation conceived by PRICE and his collaborators is composed of a system of multiple duct ventilation and large aquariums housing sculptures. The austere geometry of the cooling system and the aquarium is counterbalanced by the “mignon” aspect of oversized perfume bottles inspired by the iconic fragrance Fracas, created by the French perfumer Germaine Cellier in 1948.

These enlarged objects in shades of green and brown patinated copper (an antiseptic material used for stair rails, elevator buttons, and medical operation tools) gleam in muddy waters. By combining the industrial fan on one side and the aquarium with sculptures on the other, the installation merges a standardization aesthetic (characteristic of airports and offices) with queer narratives of kitsch and cliché.