Eroticism, refinement, sensuality, loss into one’s inner self and in the nearby’s… SHERPIUM (read “serpium”) is the collection Cristina Garabeţanu proposed as an “excursus” into the greatest mysteries of the world: the woman. The line she suggested stays at the border between vulgar and sensual, between carnal and spiritual, oscillating permanently between Lilith, the revolted, and Eve, the wife – who was more beneficent? who was more maleficent? The half-visible–half-concealed theme of temptation is enclosed in the name of SHERPIUM, a combination among serum, serpent and opium. A potion able to heal and bewitch the way the serpent could offer the apple together with eternal damnation, or could drop the healing venom in Asclepius’ cup, recalling to life the dead and cure the hopeless. Everything is enshrouded in a darkness permeated by opium smoke, which is never “enough”. The wine, locked in bottles reminding ancient perfume vessels, together with the postcards reproducing the labels, achieve a “complex” enjoying an overflowing femininity, a stupendous, both cruel and tender, eroticism. The instant surprised on each label in the collection stands between promise and dedication: it’s the moment of decision, of choice, the “flash” of the second when everything is possible, from pursuing the exercise of admiration to brutal taking possession. A woman described by a woman…

SHERPIUM collection was bottled in 10,800 glass bottles.