Smell Expert

Sissel Tolaas was born in 1963 and raised in Norway and Iceland. Since 1987 she has been based in Berlin. She studied mathematics, chemical science, linguistics and languages, and visual art in Oslo, Warsaw, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Oxford and at Princeton University. The recipient of various national and international scholarships, honors and prizes, Tolaas has been concentrating on the topics of smell, language and communication since 1990.

Bridging the gap between science, art and commerce, she has worked and co-operated with numerous companies and institutions such as Sony, Catier, Siemens, Mercedes Benz, Estée Lauder, Bayer Schering, the Max Planck Society or the San Francisco Neuroscience Institute.

Tolaas has exhibited at the MOMA in New York, the SFMOMA in San Francisco, the Guggenheim Collections in Venice and Berlin, the Museum of Modern Art in Berlin, the National Art Museum of China in Beijing as well as the Biennales in Berlin, Venice, Tirana, Gwangju and Liverpool.

Sissel Tolaas has taught at Tsinghua University, Beijing; Columbia University, New York; Parson New School, New York; Pasadena Art Center, Pasadena; Vienna University; Oxford University; MIT Boston; Harvard University; Liverpool University; Oslo University; Moscow University; Stanford University; TU, Berlin; Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin; and many more.

With the support of IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.), Tolaas established the RE_searchLab Berlin, on smell and communication, in January 2004.