Anne Bernard, Marianne Demers, and Lou Marchais, students in the Graduate Diploma in Event Design (DESS) program at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), present Absolues jardin, a multi-sensory installation on display until October 16 on UQAM’s Place Pasteur.

Nine olfactory snapshots

Absolue, an extract used in perfumery, inspired these designers to create an olfactory journey in three parts—river, garden, and stream—that capture the scents of the sublime landscapes surrounding the Reford Gardens.

Every day, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on UQAM’s Place Pasteur, in the heart of Montréal’s Latin Quarter, these structures diffuse nine (9) fragrant blends, veritable memory capsules carefully designed to stimulate the imagination.

“In a eulogy to the leisurely pace of a garden visit, Absolues jardin allows visitors to experience these scents as they are diffused,” notes Anne Bernard, one of the three student designers. “Dispersed at random intervals, the scents are an invitation to revel for a moment by a fire on the shores of the river, to inhale the scent of freshly cut grass in the garden, or to experience the heady enchantment of tobacco fumes by the stream.”

Shapes inspired by the route of the waterways, and a unique terrazzo 

formed from materials gleaned from nature.

The installation is comprised of three distinct islands, imagined by the vertical abstraction of the route of the waterways that correspond to them. The team of designers has reinterpreted the terrain around the Reford Gardens: the winding course of the Mitis River, the gentler curve of the shore of the St. Lawrence, and the course of the stream that crosses the Reford Gardens.

Materials gleaned from nature (pebbles, shells, driftwood, and plants) in the surrounds of the Reford Gardens are embedded in concrete and form a collection of travel memories in a terrazzo unique to each island.

The copper details recall the old stills and vats used in the past for the distillation of perfumes.

A complimentary multimedia experience

You can deepen your exploration of this metaphorical territory on a mobile site accessible by smartphone, including a chronicle of the various scents at different times of the day, the year, or the last century at Métis. There is also a collection of period photographs by Elsie Reford, a remarkable woman who was the visionary creator of the Reford Gardens.

“Over the years, UQAM and the Reford Gardens have established a fruitful collaboration, notably by hosting projects by Event Design diploma students. We are always delighted to offer designers fertile territory for inspiration and experimentation. The idea that Montrealers can experience fragments of our beautiful region in the heart of the Latin Quarter is truly exhilarating,” adds Alexander Reford, director of the Reford Gardens.

Co-presented by UQAM and the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, the Absolues jardin installation was conceived as part of the Diploma in Event Design at the UQAM School of Design under the direction of Professor Céline Poisson, in collaboration with the Reford

Gardens. The project was then realized during an internship at UQAM’s Communications Department under the supervision of lecturer Serina Tarkhanian and production manager Laurence Montmarquette.