Shedding light on cooperative strategies of contemporary art galleries
The aim of this article consists in studying under which conditions spatial proximity favours cooperation between galleries. Our hypothesis is that collaborative strategies appear only when spatial and cognitive proximities are completed by proximity of value. The economy of proximity is the main theoretical corpus on which we rely. Both quantitative and qualitative database were settled. Whereas quantitative data were obtained through the database of La Maison des artistes, qualitative data were obtained through semi -structured interviews we conducted with contemporary art protagonists in five French cities. We show a high concentration of art galleries on the French territory. Nevertheless, even though some galleries share the same profession and skills (cognitive proximity), the spatial proximity they share does not lead necessarily towards cooperative strategies. We highlight the existence of different contemporary art networks within a same geographical area. We show the role played by artistic conventions for the consistency of these networks, the criteria for assessing the quality of works (conventions of artistic quality) being specific to each network.