The Contrôler les atmosphères, l'odeur comme politique d'action (Controlling atmospheres: smell as an action policy) conference project sets out to question the olfactory environment in the West and to reinvent atmospheric and olfactory standards today. We propose to discuss, with a number of speakers, the concept we call "white atmospheres", defined here as the atmospheric dimension established since the eighteenth century, as a minimum, aimed at establishing hygiene and standardised, and therefore discriminatory, atmospheres that materialise in the air we breathe.

Series of lectures by Sandra Barré and Alix Hugonnier as part of the Par la fumée (By smoke) exhibition, curated by Sandra Barré
The lectures are preceded by a private tour of the exhibition at 6pm.
Free registration here

Tuesday 29th October, 7pm
Sandra Barré & Alix Hugonnier — Introductory session: Western norms, "white atmospheres", a proposal to erode control

Tuesday 29th October, 8pm
Suzel Balez — Sensory impact of air manipulation in our interiors

Wednesday 6 November, 7pm
Julie C. Fortier — Breathing in the landscape

Wednesday 20 November, 7pm
Jean-François Boclé — Es ou prenn l'odèa? Poetics/politics of plants, from extractivism to nourishment

Wednesday 27 November, 7pm
Érika Wicky - Gender norms and private spaces in the 19th century: the discreet perfume of the bourgeoisie

Wednesday 4 December, 7pm
Hsuan Hsu — Race and colonialism: olfactory ways of making worlds

Wednesday 11th December, 7pm
Sandra Barré & Alix Hugonnier — Concluding session: Olfactory resistance to visual totalitarianism