The first portuguese Art Agency: a case study

Emanuel Cameira
2008 Portuguese Journal of Social Science  
Emanuel Cameira é sociólogo e tem participado em investigações nos mais variados domínios. Trabalhou no CIES-ISCTE na área da saúde e sociedade de informação, colaborou no estudo os Rastos da Solidão, coordenado no ICS-UL pelo Professor Doutor José Machado Pais e, presentemente, encontra-se no Observatório das Actividades Culturais ligado ao projecto Inquérito ao Sector do Livro. Tendo frequentado o 1º ano do Programa de Doutoramento em Sociologia do ISCTE, interessa-se por uma multiplicidade
more » ... questões colocadas no âmbito da sociologia da arte. Abstract Observing agents and dealership processes relating to a particular artistic territory, specifically the plastic arts. And, furthermore, seeking to make a contribution to filling gaps in the interpretation of the organisation of that characteristic system 1 , a system that, excepting certain incidences, "may not have been the subject, as such, of sufficiently public assertion, absent both in the media and sociological analysis" 2 . At a time when new places for art are emerging 3 , the search for a critical reflection on the processes mentioned above is extremely relevant, in an attempt to attain something new that is sociologically significant and also able, perhaps, to contribute to an understanding of certain features of the present context of the Portuguese contemporary art space. In terms of what I would dare call a research style, it is appropriate to say in advance that the investment was made in a singular and empirical observable, namely, an art agency that is an unprecedented initiative. And since it is always relevant to define an orientation on the subject, the general questions at the base of this paper are as follows: appearing in December 2003, what did the "Vera Cortês -Art Agency" model bring to the space of contemporary art? How is it to be understood within that same panorama? An art agency not taken in a merely descriptive sense but as an "immersion zone", in an attempt to unveil, along the route, a nexus of reciprocal interactions, i.e. by creating a dialogue between the configuration of the artistic field and the singularity of the case-study and then seeing how they question each other. And how both question the paradigms and the sociological corpus relating to art.
doi:10.1386/pjss.7.2.131_1 fatcat:or26kqtrpvcy5j5royydz2fyge