PATHOSMELLS

What impact do smells have on our experience? Which smells do we associate with emotions? And what memories, emotions, bodily states can they evoke?
In a deodorised society in which visual and audio images hold supremacy over the other senses, we attempt to draw attention to olfactory images, investigating and stimulating the connection between odours and bodily memory, between fragrances, stenches and bodily reactions, between breath and its indispensable connection with the sense of smell.
pathosmells represents a new phase of the ELP project and involves the creation of a series of archives and a dance solo by Paola Bianchi. In keeping with the ELP project, the first phase of inquiry engaged a heterogeneous group of individuals contacted via email, followed by in-person interviews and encounters during residencies at the University of Arts in Linz (2025) and at Teatro Akropolis (2026).

This new line of inquiry within the ELP project was prompted by OLFAC, a transdisciplinary European Research Council project based at the University of Arts in Linz. OLFAC brings together insights from arts, cultural and media studies, anthropology, psychology, neurobiology and chemistry. The project aims to develop a theory of olfactory performativity that redefines the role of smell as a critical force in the interplay between politics, aesthetics and the senses.