"KROKOS KOZANIS" JULIEN BOUDET: Paris

Shot in Kozani, the birthplace of the world’s finest saffron, this series connects a perfume to its roots. Rather than staging it in a distant world of luxury, Boudet placed the fragrance within the rhythms of everyday life - fields, streets, people, and objects that shape the region’s identity.

 

The saffron flower becomes both subject and symbol: fragile yet powerful, ordinary yet precious. Through portraits, chance encounters, and local textures, the work captures the spirit of Kozani - its authenticity, grit, and quiet elegance. 

 

This project also carries a personal resonance. Growing up in Sète, in the South of France by the Mediterranean Sea, Boudet recognizes in Greece a familiar rhythm: its light, its proximity to the sea, and a shared vernacular culture of motorcycles and scooters as extensions of everyday life. These parallels create a bridge between two geographies, allowing him to see Kozani not as foreign, but as a continuation of his own story.

 

The installation extends this exploration into three dimensions. By fusing a motorcycle frame with saffron packaging, it reimagines the intersection of agriculture and machinery, locality and global culture. Suspended between function and monument, the sculpture reflects on transformation itself - how raw matter, whether spice, perfume, or metal, is distilled into new forms of desire and meaning.