Hennessy Recruits Robotic Arm To Design ‘Generative Art’ Embellished Cognac

(Photo: Hennessy)

On Friday, Hennessy Cognac plunged straight into futurism with a limited-edition cognac release helmed by French artist Florian Zumbrunn.

The collection, limited to just 40 bottles, reimagines the brand’s Hennessy X.O expression through the lens of generative art. Zumbrunn and creative agency OK C’EST COOL accomplished the task with a series of algorithms that autonomously generated random compositions, which were then painted onto decanters using a robotic arm.

Guests at the brand’s boutique in Cognac, France can request specific color palettes on a tablet. Their preferences are then loaded into the machine, which spits out a design halfway between a technicolor oil spill and a wisp of neon smoke.

Zumbrunn is a graduate of Paris’s Les Gobelins visual art school, where he pioneered a method of generative arts that’s since been displayed at exhibitions in Dubai, Berlin and Japan. His Instagram bio reads with a wink and a nod; “I mostly paint with code, but I also have pens and brushes in my wardrobe.”

“In my work, I am constantly merging multiple disciplines,” Zumbrunn told The Spirits Business. “I blend the old with the new, human gestures with machine output, and traditional techniques such as pastel and watercolour with lines of code. From that perspective, I was particularly inspired by Hennessy’s mastery of the fine art of blending and its continuous dialogue between tradition and innovation.”

The collection is now available exclusively at the brand’s boutique in France, costing €1,200 (US$1,260) per decanter accompanied by a 60x100cm print signed by Zumbrunn.

It’s the third artist-helmed release this year to reinterpret Hennessy’s X.O Cognac. In September, the brand unveiled a duo of gold-embellished bottles created by sculptor Jean-Michel Othoniel. The design came in two markedly different varieties; one cost $286, the other $38,927.

The release was followed up last month with a trio of bottles paying homage to the Chinese New Year. Shanghai-based fashion designer Shuting Qiu coated the brand’s VSOP, X.O and Paradis expressions with crimson-red twists that featured embossed snake and flower motifs. The set was made available exclusively at the Hennessy Boutique in Harrods, London.