The London School of Economics and Political Science Markets and Mediators: Politics and primary art markets in Montréal Vrajesh Hanspal A thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, July 2012. 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 94,803 words. 2 Abstract Markets and mediators: Politics and primary art markets in Montréal is an ethnographic study of Montrealʼs primary art market and explains how history, government policy and calculative agency operate together to frame the practice of cultural mediators in the visual arts field. Actors operate within a complex financial and symbolic economy that must respond to changing modes of governance and international trends that increasingly concern metropolitan rather than national development. These forms of agency are situated within overlapping discourses concerning cultural policy at a provincial and municipal level that organize the artistic field in the city, the ʻrule and rolesʼ and ʻweak tiesʼ that format legitimate action in the primary market and the processes that are used to incorporate new trends and innovation in the field. The thesis argues that mediators in the primary art market play a generative role in the creation of a multicultural and cosmopolitan cultural capital while addressing the conflicting demands of Quebecʼs nationalist politics. The thesis uses Bourdieuʼs field and cultural theory, Callonʼs theory of markets and contemporary work on cities and multicultures to understand this competition over scarce resources by actors in an art world dominated by state support and institutions. The function of art worlds and their mediation by urban elites reiterates the political importance of aesthetic canonization and labor market practice in a city held to bear a specific responsibility for maintaining a sense of culture and identity. 3 CONTENTS Abstract 3 Chapter 1 • Making Sense of Art Markets and Mediation in Montréal Introduction 6 Research Process – History and Policy 11 The Gallery and the City 14 Changing Peripheral and Sullen Markets 16 The Significance of Practice 19 Plan of the Thesis 23 Chapter 2 • Bourdieu, ANT and the Creative Economy Introduction 34 Studies in ‘Art Worlds’ 38 The Field of Cultural Production: Bourdieu and the Economics of Cultural Practice 43 ANT and Performing in Markets 56 Creative Economy – the City and Cultural Intermediaries 65 Cosmopolitanism and Elite Governance 71 Conclusion 75 Chapter 3 • Methods, Elites and ‘Appartenance’ in the Montreal Market Introduction 77 Following the Actor and Interview Strategies 80 Interview Selection and Data 83 Inside and Out - the Nous or Vous? 90 Conclusion 98 Table 1 99 Chapter 4 • Art Worlds, Geography and History in Montréal Introduction 102 Montreal’s Political Ecology 107 Montreal’s Visual Arts Field 111 The Role of the Réfus Globale 120 The Crisis of Identity and Melancholic Nationalism 127 Conclusion 136 4 Chapter 5 • The Visual Arts Sector and State Policy – Engineering Mediators and Practitioners in the Québécois Art Field Introduction 139 The Federal Government and the Massey Commission 149 The Creation of the Ministère des Affaires culturelles 156 1992 Notre culture, notre avenir 163 Interculturalism and Multiculturalism 167 Arts Community Advocacy and Mobilization 174 Cultural Policy - Ville de Montréal 178 Arm's Length Bureaucracies 185 Conclusion 190 Chapter 6 • Gallery Owners – Mediators and the 4p’s Introduction 195 Place – Retail Geographies 200 Promotional Strategies and Pedagogical Processes 204 Promotional Strategies and Professionalism 209 Product and Identity 215 Prices and Places 219 Conclusion 222 Chapter 7 • Biennales, Triennials and Obduracy - Versioning on the Periphery and Engineering the Cultural Capital Introduction 225 Montreal: Cultural Capital in the Making 229 Biennales and Triennials 240 Altmejd 249 Gains for the Primary Art Market: Shanghai and SODEC 254 Trickle Down Effects and the Supply Side 259 Conclusion 263 Chapter 8 • Conclusion: Evaluation and Innovation Introduction 267 Reaffirming the Theoretical in Markets and Mediators 268 Montreal's Sullen and Obdurate market 273 Opening Black Boxes 277 Bibliography 282 Acknowledgements 297 5 Chapter 1 Making Sense of Primary Art Markets and Mediation in Montréal The first time you sell something is when it should cost the most,” he says. “I’ve definitely had the goal to make the primary market more expensive.” He compares a Prada outlet and an Oxfam shop. Why, in the world of shoes, do you pay more for a new pair from Prada, while in the world of art, the big money kicks in only when the shoes get to Oxfam? (Damien Hirst quoted in Januszczak, 2008) Created in 1956, the Conseil des arts de Montréal has become an essential partner in Montréal's artistic creation. Its grant and touring programs, the Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée, as well as its Grand Prix, the Prix Arts-Affaires de Montréal, the Maison (which also houses rehearsal studios), support of emerging artists and artists from ethnocultural communities, all combine to make the Conseil a unique lever for the development of "Montréal, cultural metropolis”. (CAM, 2008) Introduction People working in sales often remark that the key to success is ‘selling the sizzle not the steak’. In the context of the contemporary primary art market the ‘sizzle’ is an array of qualities that are made apparent through a portfolio, CV and media manipulation in equal measure to the work itself. The route to success and prominence for artist, gallery owner or state curator is linked to the accumulation of positive endorsements by a series of actors operating in a network. They are all part of the “collective activity” (H. Becker, 1984, p. 76) of the field that includes journalists, academics, bureaucrats and buyers. Montreal’s primary art market, like primary art markets throughout the major urban centers in the world, is a social assemblage (DeLanda, 2006) that functions on the basis of particular modes of economic and cultural action. Art markets also serve an important generative role in shaping narratives of the nation and the city through the meditative practices of actors in relation to labor markets, government policy and artistic canonization. Taken together the art world remains a political site that reproduces the narratives of citizenship and the multicultural within its complex network of positions, strategies and identities. 6 The collective activity of the local artistic field (Pierre Bourdieu, 1993) in Montréal is characteristic of activity in art worlds generally as well as the specific and more localized political concerns tied to the province of Québec and the city of Montréal. The operation and governance of the artistic field is not simply about the ownership of resources and the distribution of power but the language and culture of those involved and the way in which these linkages and associations amongst actors plays out in a complex network of relations. The act of doing the economy and understanding economic transactions and market making in Montréal involves uncovering what Callon describes as ‘entanglements’ (M. Callon, 1998) – the complex array of criteria that can enter into the frame of economic calculation`. In the province of Québec, where culture and language are viewed as threatened, debates surrounding the politics of history, identity and language play a key role in shaping cultural and economic life in Montréal and its art world. Galleries and the art worlds they operate in are complex and inter-dependent ‘social assemblages’ (DeLanda, 2006) that play an important role in the cultural economy and cultural ecology of the city. This specialized field generates jobs, careers, institutions and ‘buzz’ (Zukin, 2001) that cultivate specific ideas and associations about place. The image of the dynamic, diverse and cosmopolitan city is derived in part by the output and production of the cultural sector and the actors who inhabit that space and the power of this image to resonate among travelers, other global cultural consumers and the people who inhabit the city. The ascendancy of a local art world is therefore intertwined with the success of the city particularly where, from a political perspective, culture and the cultural economy is understood to be a key element of domestic and international economic development and promotion. 7 In Montréal, the second largest city in Canada and the largest city in the Province of Québec, the concern for cultural protectionism and the preservation and safeguarding of French language and culture happens alongside a drive to create an internationally recognized, cosmopolitan center. The French ‘sociological fact’ (Hogg, 1988, p. 12) and the politics of Québécois nationalism are the sine qua non of daily life in the Province. To many people, particularly those in the Anglo-American world, the anxieties of cultural preservation are localized within an over-riding context of linguistic and cultural global dominance. For the 7.6 million Québécois the threat of assimilation into the Anglophone sea of 350 million Americans south of the border and an additional 25 million in the other 9 provinces and 3 territories of Canada is an abiding concern. French-Canadian and Québécois nationalism has been the organic political force that since the British conquest of New France in 1769 has protected and preserved this community from the risk of cultural and linguistic extinction and, more recently, economic subjugation by Anglophone business and political interests.