Last Saturday, Oct. 15, on the occasion of the 210-years anniversary of Mount Lavinia in Colombo, Sri Lanka (originally built as the official residence of the then British Governor of Ceylon, and in present days being the very special and luxurious hotel in Colombo), Slovene artist Eva Petrič was the height of the festivity, together with the Bollywood film diva Karisma Kapoor.
Eva Petrič and Karisma Kapoor
Eva Petrič flew to Colombo specially from New York and Karisma Kapoor from Mumbai, India, to launch Eva Petrič’s olfactory art product; limited edition of perfume Lavinia, an echo of love – Eva Petrič’s olfactory and artistic interpretation of the true love story that took place at Mount Lavinia in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
»The basic start behind the project is my art and the true legend of the hotel Mt. Lavinia. The hotel is situated in the former residence of the British Governor, where an underground tunnel still exists – it was used by the Governor Thomas Maitland to secretly meet with his lover, a young Sri Lankan dancer Lavinia. Their unhappy love story really fascinated and inspired me as well as the hotel owner Mr. Sanath Ukwatte, who invited me to create the perfume as my interpretation of this love story,« explains Eva Petrič.
In Hotel Mount Lavinia
She met Mr. Ukwatte some years ago where he came to know her art. He liked it and invited Eva to come up with a proposal for a perfume that would be representational of his hotel.
»Of course I was happy and honored to take on this challenge and could not ignore the true legend of the hotel when coming up with the concept and visual themes of this project – which for me ended up being the guiding principle, the muse of this project,« says Eva Petrič.
According to the true story, one could say a Sri Lankan version of Madam Butterfly drama, Sir Thomas Maitland, the then British governor of Ceylon, fell in love with a Mestizo dances Lovina Aponsuwa. Since their love was something utterly inappropriate at that time, they had to meet secretly. For this purpose the special underground tunnel was built from the Governor’s residence to Lovina’s village so that the dancer could come secretly to the residence to meet with the governor. Parts of this tunnel still exist today and are incorporated into the present day famous Hotel Mount Lavinia.
Eva Petrič – Lavinia
Eva Petrič was inspired by this story to enter into the world of fragrances, to combine elements of two different levels of perception, elements of the perception of the ephemeral, emotional and the graspable, material world.
»I was interested to create a fragrance, representing or constituting the emotion of Love made of many sub emotions, shadows… For me it is extremely fascinating that fragrance is chemistry, while the effects it produces and brings about is spirituality. Fragrance opens up even our most hidden emotions, bringing them to the surface, offering them for transformation, thus being potential.«
For the visual presentation of her olfactory interpretation of Lavinia’s story Eva Petrič used an image of a dancer’s silhouette, which stems from her Gr@y Matter series where she investigates the communication abilities of shadows, expressing emotions.
»For this purpose I borrowed the periodic table from the natural sciences and replaced chemical elements with emotions visualized by shadows,« explains Eva Petrič. »We all have shadows like we all have emotions… also the Governor had emotions for Lavinia, for his forbidden love, his shadow…«
Marijan Zlobec
En odgovor na “Artist Eva Petrič’s interpretation of the true love story”
This lady is a genious. She covers all possible whatsoever.. She is unique in this planet. She is the ultimate and prime artist in the world. Hope, the people will understand, she is a pure treasure, the artist, who appears in thousent or even more years. Than you, dear Eva, for all that you told us.