Sea of Tranquility,
olfactory installation

What does the moon smell like? There are only twelve people who have had the precious opportunity to smell it. When astronauts re-entered their lunar lander after a moonwalk, they brought moondust inside with them. It reacted with oxygen in the lander and gave off a short, but intense, burst of smell.
Although the astronauts brought moondust back to earth, they were not able to isolate it from the oxygen in the lander. All the moondust that came to earth is devoid of any scent. We, the inhabitants of planet earth, can only guess how this scent might have smelled. The olfactory installation 'Sea of Tranquility' is the result of a collaboration between French perfume designer Barnabé Fillion and Unfold.

What does the moon smell like? There are only twelve people who have had the precious opportunity to smell it. When astronauts re-entered their lunar lander after a moonwalk, they brought moondust inside with them. It reacted with oxygen in the lander and gave off a short, but intense, burst of smell.
Although the astronauts brought moondust back to earth, they were not able to isolate it from the oxygen in the lander. All the moondust that came to earth is devoid of any scent. We, the inhabitants of planet earth, can only guess how this scent might have smelled. The olfactory installation 'Sea of Tranquility' is the result of a collaboration between French perfume designer Barnabé Fillion and Unfold.

French curator Elizabeth Leriche commissioned Fillion and Unfold to produce a scent and olfactory experience for the exhibition 'PRECIOUS', part of Maison&Objet 2015.

No material is more mundane and precious at the same time than lunar dust. Unfold dived into the NASA archives to track the various references astronauts made on the smell and appearance of lunar dust and based on these references Barnabé Fillion formulated a scent with accents of silver, ozone, gunpowder, musty dust and honey.

A new raw material with perfume diffusing characteristics was developed inspired by the composition and colors of moondust. 'Sea of Tranquility' consists of a two meter diameter circular moonscape created with this new material; a small moon rover drawing tracks while performing a periodic choreography; and a soundtrack composed of original Apollo program conversations on the smell and appearance of the lunar surface. 'Sea of Tranquility' is the name of the region where mankind left the first lunar footprint.