Maria Candida Gentile Rrose Sèlavy
With Rrose Sélavy Maria Candida interprets the “double” of Marcel Duchamp, and his jeux des mots Rrose Sélavy which sounds in French like "eros, c'est la vie", or "arroser la vie", to make a toast to life. Maria Candida pays tribute to Duchamp, making a toast to life with her velvet, soft, fresh, just harvested, with its olfactory vibration, which fill the air and the space, tridimensional just like his art crafts. The name Sélavy emerged in 1921 in a series of photographs by Man Ray of Duchamp dressed as a woman. Through the 1920s, Man Ray and Duchamp collaborated on more photos of Sélavy. Duchamp later used the name as the byline on written material and signed several creations with it.
"Rrose Sélavy, the feminine alter ego created by Marcel Duchamp, is one of the most complex and pervasive pieces in the enigmatic puzzle of the artist's oeuvre. She first emerged in portraits made by the photographer Man Ray in New York in the early 1920s, when Duchamp and Man Ray were collaborating on a number of conceptual photographic works. Rrose Sélavy lived on as the person to whom Duchamp attributed specific works of art, Readymades, puns, and writings throughout his career. By creating for himself this female persona whose attributes are beauty and eroticism, he deliberately and characteristically complicated the understanding of his ideas and motives."
The name "Rrose Sélavy," interpreted/translated in at least two ways: "Eros, c'est la vie" (eros, that's life) and "Arroser la vie" (to drink to life or, more sensually, to moisten life, as in arousal), is niche perfumer Maria Candida Gentile's toast to Marcel Duchamp and his female (drag) creation, Rrose Sélavy. As perfume inspirations go, it's intriguing and FUN — just like Gentile's Elephant & Roses idea.
Floral
The fragrance features rose, turkish rose, may rose and green notes.