3. Juni 2026, 17.00 Uhr Kunstuni Linz, Hauptplatz 8, 4020 Linz (Lecture Hall F - H8.05.03)
The Department of Cultural Studies invites you to a lecture from Erika Wicky (Olfactions, Université Grenoble Alpes).
In the second half of the nineteenth century, painters’ studios increasingly fascinated the public and gradually became places of sociability and selfrepresentation
for artists. Yet, due to their architectural and functional characteristics, artists’ studios were highly stimulating from a sensory perspective. This communication will examine the role of the senses in the experience of these social and creative spaces, paying particular attention to aspects related to air quality: the smell of turpentine and varnishes, the presence of dust and insects, toxic fumes, elevated temperatures, etc. Through the study of various studio narratives, it will become possible to observe the multiple meanings that painters and their different visitors (art critics, clients, paint dealers, and others) attributed to these sensory perceptions.
Erika Wicky, a historian of olfactory culture (eighteenth-twentieth centuries), is an Assistant Professor at Université Grenoble Alpes, where she holds a research
chair in olfaction. She received her PhD in Art History from the Université de Montréal (2011) and has held research fellowships and academic positions in Canada, Belgium, France, and Italy. She has published extensively in scholarly journals including Women’s Studies, Technè, Romantisme, and French Cultural Studies, among others.
All Dates of the lecture series “The Senses in Performance”:
11. März 2026
Introduction by OLFAC – Silke Felber, Freda Fiala and Julia Ostwald
25. März 2026
320 GB im Rucksack – der physische Aspekt digitaler Kunst über Gletscher
Tina Frank (Visual Communication, University of Arts Linz) &
Alexis Dworsky (Media Design, University of Arts Linz)
15. April 2026
Dis_sensual – A crip choreographer’s re-distribution of the sensible
Michael Turinsky (Artist, Vienna)
22. April 2026
Performing Snakes in Modernity and Today
Nicole Haitzinger (Dance Studies, University of Salzburg) &
Christina Gillinger (Tanzquartier Vienna TQW)
29. April 2026
Lingering with Bass (2024, Steve McQueen)
Ulrike Hanstein (VALIE EXPORT Center, University of Arts Linz)
6. Mai 2026
Sinn für Unlösbares
bankleer – Karin Kasböck & Christoph Maria Leitner
13. Mai 2026
Mimi o Sumasu – the Very Act of Listening
Mia Yoshida (Artistic Research and Head of the Zentrum Fokus Forschung, University of Applied Arts Vienna)
20. Mai 2026
Tasting skin. On chilis and chills
Karin Harrasser (Cultural Studies, University of Arts Linz and Director of
ifk – International Research Center for Cultural Studies)
27. Mai 2026
Olfactory Violence and the Freedom to Speak: Stink Bombs in Interwar Europe
William Tullett (Early Modern History, University of York)
3. Juni 2026
Sensing the Atmospheres of Painters’ Studios in Nineteenth-Century France
Erika Wicky (Olfactions, Université Grenoble Alpes)
10. Juni 2026
Hee-Hawing Democracy: Somatic Articulations Beyond the Logos - Inhalt folgt
Bettina Wuttig (University of Marburg)
17. Juni 2026
Greetings from the Swamp
Maria Nalbantova (Artist, Sofia)
24. Juni 2026
A loving ear – toward a poetic ecology of feeling
Brandon LaBelle (Independent Researcher, Berlin)