Maison Cointreau has asked artist Florian Viel to create the packaging for its 2021 Limited Edition. A graduate of the Beaux-Arts in Paris after a thesis on the emergence of plants in art, Florian Viel questions the Western view of the Tropics. Between clichés and fantasies of an enchanted elsewhere, he thwarts the stereotypes about the tropical world by creating a hyper-colored pop universe that mixes abstract and figurative drawing.
Meet Florian Viel
Florian Viel, the explorer
Florian Viel, the explorer
Florian Viel drew his first tropical inspirations while venturing into the jungle near the archaeological site of Chichen Itza, Mexico. Thanks to his photographic notes, he enriched the vocabulary of his forms. He collected objects and made correlations as he moved them into his western daily life as sculptures or art installations.
Florian Viel delivers a playful, quasi-caricatural interpretation of the tropics as he aims to awaken the senses and minds, right down to the titles of his works - Un peu plus loin après la mer, Cabinet de souvenirs approximatifs, Life is(n't) a Beach, to name but a few. Evocative titles that invite us to reflect.
Florian Viel collects his souvenirs and fetish objects and exhibits them in his home. He is also an art collector and loves the singular idea of exchanging pieces.
Florian Viel is also a founding member of the artists’ collective The Tropicool Company, together with Jonathan Chauveau. This entity made it possible for him to invest himself in the opening of a bookstore and the organization of exhibitions while it afforded him a new vision of his work. The invitation from Cointreau to interpret its iconic bottle was another opportunity to explore the field of possibilities.
"It was obvious this Limited Edition had to come into being. To me these are true collector's items."
The celebration of taste
The celebration of taste
Florian Viel sees the senses as instruments of perception. Very early on, he worked on taste. For his studies, he formulated a pineapple drink and opposed the playful, cheery icon of tropical fruit with its industrialization. For his vernissages, he does not hesitate to use his sense of smell through essential oils or naturally scented wood, such as Palo Santo.
His piece "Artificial Aromas, Tropical Taste" takes up the strange notion of the taste called ‘tropical’ by lighting a space with a neon the color of a tropical-tasting drink: we enter and immerse ourselves in the color, and artifice, of the drink and by extension, of the artwork. In this collaboration with Cointreau, his interest in the olfactory and gustatory took on its full meaning. The famous crystalline liqueur unveils 40 organoleptic notes and comes as a surprise when it is released from its amber flask.
"I mix many things in my work, palettes of colors and shapes come together as new ones, forming a whole. I think mixing a cocktail entails this same process: a judicious mix of flavors creates a unique taste."
The Original Margarita
The Original Margarita
"The Margarita is special, I like its unique color that I could compare to a flat tint, and its sweet and sour taste. It has a certain spiciness that I like."
At the mention of the cocktail, Florian Viel recalls his trips to Mexico and his discovery of Cointreau’s liqueur in a cocktail bar flooded with 60’s tiki music. He daydreams of all the places in the world where one could enjoy a Margarita. A vision that echoes Margaret Sames'. She held parties at her Acapulco estate in the late 1940s and wanted to find an original cocktail recipe to enjoy during the day. When asked how to improve on the cocktail, Florian Viel's answer is categorical: "The Margarita is perfect as is!"
An invitation to an imaginary journey
An invitation to an imaginary journey
Florian Viel proceeded in the same way as he did when approaching the tropical world. By layers. By identifying the subjects in the design of the triptych that adorn and honor the facets of this edition’s bottle: the orange refers to the orange peel distillate of Cointreau’s liqueur. Its totem animal is the toucan. The monstera deliciosa leaf he chose for its expressiveness, identifiable shape, and precise cutouts.
According to Florian Viel, who is used to working with large areas of color for his frescoes- so large we project ourselves into them- the exercise in style resided in the appropriation of the medium in order to design the play of elements between them. "I design my paintings on the computer. The labels ended up looking quite similar to the ones on screen except for the details. To read them, we had to go back to basics.". In the tropical spotlight and through his colorful interpretation, artist Florian Viel makes us want to rediscover the Maison Cointreau and take a vibrant gustatory, olfactory, and visual journey with this Limited Edition 2021.
"I developed patterns with elements from both my work and Cointreau liqueur. The more or less revealed orange, for instance, can be found in different places between my abstract color patches and the toucans."
LIMITED EDITION BY THE TROPICOOL COMPANY
In the tropical spotlight and through his colorful interpretation, artist Florian Viel makes us want to rediscover the Maison Cointreau and take a vibrant gustatory, olfactory, and visual journey with this Limited Edition 2021.
