The artist Alžběta Krňanská is the first woman KATARZIST who breathed life into our new Eau de Parfum. She lives her life, her energy, fluid, sensual and unrestrained, fearlessly in Athens, where she raises her son Alva. In her Greek studio, he screates large-scale objects and canvases that transport the observer to foreign landscapes full of ornaments, earthy colors and deep senses.
Bety, a painter who shatters ideas and challenges us to reevaluate what we have so far considered a socially acceptable standard. She represents a strong and courageous pioneer who does not forget the incalculable value of traditions and nature. In her artistic work, she prescribes femininity, motherhood, the history of ancient Greece and the wealth of nature not only in her large canvases, but also on non-traditional objects such as old used car bodies. Objects are given new stories that draw attention to the paradoxes between private, domesticated spaces and dystopian human-made realities. She is everything we put into the Katarzist.
Which human sense is the most important to you and why?
For me, the most important thing is probably the sight. Every now and then I stop somewhere and look at things, people, animals, sometimes the observation takes me to a completely different place and I stop concentrating on what I'm doing. I enjoy observing what is happening around me. Since I had my son Alva, I also started to look at people as big children. I imagine what they looked like and what they were like when they were little, it's kind of my psychological exploration.
What is your most sensual experience?
The most sensual experience... it's hard to decide. For me, the most powerful experience (I don't know if it's the most sensual, maybe yes) are classical music concerts, which I've been to in Prague's Rudolfinum several times. It always brings tears to my eyes, it's so powerful... I couldn't listen to it all the time, but once in a while it's really powerful.
How would you describe your creation as a fragrance?
The essence in my work would be smoky and spicy. Just as we develop over the time, so do our scent preferences. At one time I had a very popular scent of sandalwood, now I have fallen in love with oud and pepper.
Sense or nonsense? Do you prefer to make decisions based on intuition or facts?
I make decisions based on intuition. Of course, I also think about my decisions, but as a person I am very spontaneous, thanks to this ability I have experienced a lot of experiences in my life and met great people.
One experience that influenced your life and work.
Many things, random encounters and luck have influenced my life and work. It's hard to pick just one, I hate to do that. I find it unfair to the other options. Thanks to my son, my eyes were opened to a lot of topics that I had no experience with before and did not deal with them personally. Thanks to age, a person also discovers a lot of new things, refines his thoughts, opinions and attitudes. And he looks at the whole world through a slightly different lens. It is fascinating, beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
MUSE: Alžběta Krňanská
TEXT: Ráchel Smékalová
PHOTO: Renáta Muchová