Tabula Rasa Breakfast — Ernesto Ventós Foundation
Gina Ventós presides over the Fundación Ernesto Ventós, the family project born in Barcelona to share with society the legacy of her father, perfumer, artist and collector Ernesto Ventós. Since taking over as director in 2020, she has led the foundation in exhibiting the olorVISUAL collection, contemporary artworks that Ernesto acquired based on the smell they evoked in him, and the NASEVO art project, as well as launching workshops and educational programmes that bring the sense of smell —still rarely explored in classrooms— to audiences of all ages.
Gregorio de Sola, a board member of the foundation, is a senior perfumer at Puig, where he has spent more than 19 years creating some of the world's best-selling fragrances. A full member of the Academia del Perfume, in 2022 he co-curated, alongside Alejandro Vergara, the olfactory exhibition La esencia de un cuadro at the Prado Museum, where he recreated Jan Brueghel's painting El Olfato in scent.
At this breakfast, both share in an open conversation how smell can become a tool for artistic creation, memory and understanding one's surroundings, and what role a family foundation plays in keeping that outlook alive.
