The Trembling of Towers Epicentro Filippo Sorcinelli 2019
How certain moments possess a ‘rightness’, an alignment of events, unpredictable, the moment for me to write about a certain Perfume in an exceptional context. In an imperfect world there is always perfect timing……….. A year, almost, after being introduced to the inaugural perfume of Filippo Sorcinelli’s ‘Delire de Voyage’ series, Epicentro I find myself at that crucial point. Filippo spoke at his event organised for Exsence, Milan 2019 of the profoundness of the earthquake experience, inner and outer which he has encapsulated within this liquid expression.
‘The earthquake is a particularly disruptive and violent event, which enters with arrogance into the lives of those involved, taking possession of their “normality” in a few seconds. External earthquakes increase our own inner earthquakes: it is as if, with the loss of the safety of the earth beneath our feet, a profound internal tremor is determined, as a consequence. Fear and suffocation from dust is the first step, escape the second, leaving everything: objects, memories, essential goods, desperately trying to find refuge outside. The sight is blurred, eyes and throat irritated by the dust caused by the collapses; we try to find in the desperation a small and faint light, which will become the only reference point. Epicentro wants to be the reaction: to become aware of what has happened, process it and react through the security of a thought linked to Beauty.’
Curioso Unsplash
Dedicated to and supporting the 138 inhabitants of the village of Bolognola in Filippo’s home region of Marche it is the portrait of the spirals, the gamut of emotions encountered in the path of such an unexpected event.
As I inhale its drafts, seated here in confinement in France, I am today reminded of our collective fragility and strength as we face the current global situation, a mass shift in the necessity of governing bodies that has turned lives inside out and upside down and transformed our ‘reality’ that we are so comfortable and complacent about, into something radical and disruptive. Large portions of the worlds population including cherished friends in Italy and France, countries that have my heart and soul embedded in their breathing stones, find themselves limited in movements and daily lives once taken for granted, changed, out of our control. How we live in an illusion of safety and ‘normality’, such a human construct and the folly of a self-created cocoon of permanence. The Tower ‘struck down’, an apt metaphor for the destruction, inner and outer that leads us albeit unwillingly to a new perspective.
In Epicentro we experience these lightening jolts, an awakening, heightened instinctual reservoirs without filters, usually hidden deep within our subconscious recesses, manifest in an urgent responsiveness. Inscribed within its first encounter of Vetiver, Benzoin, Fir Balm, Guaiac Wood, Cumin, Amber and Angelica Roots, is the initial shock, jolting us into a synathesic connection to time and place, an absolute presence. The focus on the immediate and the minutiae………Yet within that extreme lies a pervasive inner silence as all other distractions of daily life are hushed and we are for a few moments, that linger in eternity, suspended in disbelief, still, in the moments of highest activity. I am reminded of an old adage, from my childhood, of the house of playing cards, so fragile, that falls only to be sorted and restacked, rebuilt anew.
A wood-riven, herbal clenched fist, Calamus and Mate, to hold us close in these fearful moments when all known life is shaken. A strewn path of extreme emotion, the panorama of the event itself, the uncertainty intertwined with fear, hope, calm and the focusing on all that is beautiful within chaos. The threads that guide us forward beyond the event itself, resilience and continuity of beauty in all its forms. A beckoning cocoon amid swirls of dust - ancient stones crushed, releasing centuries of stories that clamour to be heard. Liberated in the air, the crumbling of outer and inner edifices.
Tremulous, Epicentro evolves alongside an exquisite silence, ‘be still, my thundering heart and hear the inner words arising from outer chaos’. It’s settling of an embracing duo of Cedarwoods with an illuminated Bergamot reminds me of the dust coming to rest, the aftermath falling softly at my feet like the hush of snow on fir branches.
Beyond my intial sensations generated by Epicentro’s intense journey, I sense its antiquity, the unshakeable fortress of knowledge that Beauty cannot be so easily erased, firmaments may crumble, structures destroyed but the permanance of strength of spirit and beauty, unfailing in their presence. It is a tender, beautifully human perfume.
After all, there is beauty even in decay and destruction, opening perceptions to renewed parameters. Unwavering in the comprehension that in fragility there is a strength unknown.
Vetiver, Benzoin, Fir Balm, Guiaco Wood, Cumin, Amber, Amber, Angelica Roots, Mate, Ambretta Seeds, Calamus, Cedarwood, Bergamot Accord, Cedarwood Virginia.
My deepest thanks to Filippo and Yuri as always for their friendship, love and the sample of Epicentro received at Esxence, Milan 2019
1.Kunj Pareth - Unsplash. 2. Visage Jeanne d’Arc - Pierre Carron. 3. Filippo Sorcinelli - Le Temps. 4. Cracked Brown - Andrew Buchanan, Unsplash. 5. Strength in Fragility - Elenora Oleotto. 6.Shattered- Tech Crunch. 7. White Fragility -Letitia Pleiades . 8. Mari Juliano. 9. Divide - Weston Clarke. 10. Monolithic Fragility - Sergio Albiae. 11. Cracked - Andrew Buchanan, Unsplash. 12. Filippo Sorcinelli and Danu Seith-Fyr - Milan 2018.
Filippo Sorchinelli’s Epicentro is a project to assist with the restoration and the needs of the inhabitants of Bolognola, Marche region, Italy. It can be purchased here ;
https://en.filipposorcinelli.com/copia-di-spessa
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Epicentro - Filippo Sorcinelli