MÚSES - Accademia Europea delle Essenze

Inside the baroque Palazzo Taffini d'Acceglio, MÚSES presents perfumery through contemporary art and multisensory installations across two floors. Its focus on scent connects Piedmont's aromatic plants with the art of essences.

Why it matters

MÚSES belongs to a rare genre: a museum built around scent and the culture of essences. Conceived as an academy of essences, the project combines scent, art and scientific experimentation. The project was created within the European programming of the Associazione Terre dei Savoia, with scientific collaboration from the University of Turin's Department of Drug Science and Technology and its Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, and support from the Cassa di Risparmio di Savigliano bank, the municipality, the Ente Manifestazioni and the banking foundations of Turin and Fossano. The result is a "living museum" rooted in the productive tradition of a territory known for high-quality aromatic plants.

What to notice

The interplay between the collection's technology and its baroque container is the first thing to register: the exhibition occupies two floors of Palazzo Taffini d'Acceglio, an emblematic building of the Savoyard Savigliano of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, so contemporary installations sit inside frescoed and stuccoed rooms. Its installations connect olfactory memory with history, art and technology.

The Atelier del Profumiere is a perfumer's workshop in which participants compose a personalised fragrance.

Context and history

MÚSES links the territory's aromatic herb growers and essence producers with its history of perfumery. The hybridisation of disciplines normally far apart, from chemistry to art history, is the declared stylistic signature of the installation. For Savigliano, the museum also has an urban function: it brought a major visitor attraction inside one of the city's most important noble palaces, reinforcing the route between the central squares and via Sant'Andrea.