Between the 1880's and the 1920's, an international network of transcultural exchanges led to accelerated innovations in multiple cultural fields in many parts of Europe. Strong emphasis has been made by researchers and exhibitors on the relations between Vienna and Paris, this last one being considered the key capital cultural centre, attracting craftsmen, artists, musicians, and writers from all over Europe.
During this period, one could also see vigorous cultural encounters between Brussels and Vienna. The cultural relation between these two not-so marginal capitals were key to the Fin-de-siècle era with artists and writers such as Maurice Maeterlinck, Émile Verhaeren, Paul van Ostaijen, Cyriel Verschaeve, James Ensor, Félicien Rops, Victor Horta, and Fernand Knopff, Frans Masereel, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Adolf Loos, Otto Wagner, Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Maria Janitschek.
The conference is co-sponsored by KIAS, the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies, the Faculty of Arts and the Austrian Cultural Forum.