Olfactory Research Notes: Soviet Perfumery, with Daria Donina (online)

Olfactory Research Notes is a new lecture series that presents important research done in olfaction, directly from the people who do it.

Moscow-based researcher Daria Donina joins the Institute for Art and Olfaction for an online talk relating to her research into Soviet perfumery, with an emphasis on her recent exhibition dedicated to the centennial anniversary of the perfume ‘Krasnaya Moskva’ (known in English as Red Moscow).

Krasnaya Moskva was an important perfumery in the Soviet era. As ubiquitous in the East as Chanel No. 5 was in the West, the story of Krasnaya Moskva contains many mysteries and paradoxes: there remain numerous aspects of its history where evidence simply does not align. Daria explores this complexity, asking the fundamental question: How (and why) was this perfume produced, in an impoverished country where not everyone even had access to soap?

Join us as Daria Donina shares her research into Soviet urban history and daily life, women's everyday experiences, industrial heritage, and the history of commerce—and discusses her recent exhibition about the post-revolutionary period (1920-1930's) of Soviet Perfume Culture.

Daria Donina will discuss an exhibition created to mark the centenary of the legendary Soviet perfume Krasnaya Moskva (Red Moscow).

ABOUT DARIA DONINA

A multimedia journalist and art critic, Daria recently graduated from the master’s program in Cultural Heritage Management. This education largely allowed her to transform her longstanding interest in fragrances and proceed the anthropological study of their influence on people, as well as the study of everyday culture through the lens of public history. This exhibition project, covering the period of the emergence of Soviet perfumery in the 1920s–1930s, became a kind of a manifesto. In the exhibition “Krasnaya Moskva. Woman in the city”, has opened at the Constructivism Study Center on the former site of the Soviet “Zotov” bread factory in Moscow. Here “Krasnaya Moskva” is not just a beloved perfume of Soviet women or a bottle containing an old-fashioned smelling liquid, but a full-fledged object of intangible, symbolic heritage.

ATTENDANCE AND REFUND POLICY

This is an online class that will take place on Zoom. The Zoom link will be sent by email approximately 24 hours before the class. Lest this email end up in your spam folder, please be sure to add hello@artandolfaction.com and noreply@order.eventbrite.com to your address book.

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+ We will upload the class recording after the end of the session, and share it for 7 days with attendees. This video is view-only, and expires at the end of the 7 day window.

+ Unfortunately, we cannot offer refunds or credit for this class. Note also that event tickets are non-transferable.