The Creation of a Public Sphere Through a Network of Art Publics in Bogotá

The Creation of a Public Sphere through a Network of Art Publics in Bogotá D I S S E R T A T I O N of the University of St.Gallen, School of Management, Economics, Law, Social Sciences and International Affairs to obtain the title of Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Studies and Cultural Theory Submitted by Annatina Aerne From Ebnat-Kappel (St.Gallen) Approved on the application of Prof. Dr. Yvette Sánchez and Prof. Dr. Marianne Braig Dissertation no. 4820 Difo-Druck GmbH, Bamberg 2019 The University of St.Gallen, School of Management, Economics, Law, Social Sciences and International Affairs hereby consents to the printing of the present dissertation, without hereby expressing any opinion on the views herein expressed. St.Gallen, October 15, 2018 The President Prof. Dr. Thomas Bieger 2 Acknowledgements This inquiry would not have started without Professor Yvette Sánchez’ encouragement to do a PhD project on Colombia. Her energy and her ability to see opportunities rather than obstacles, and her willingness to venture into new and unchartered territory are a great inspiration to me. Moreover, her generosity and her warmth provided the basis required to undertake this project: I would not have travelled to Colombia without her support. I was enormously privileged to work with Professor Marianne Braig and Pro- fessor Philip Leifeld. Professor Marianne Braig’s decisive input at the midway point of this project has guided my work to completion. Professor Philip Leifeld has been extraordinarily generous, as he repeatedly offered me his time and patiently responded my questions regarding social network analysis. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of my interview partners and survey respondents. Throughout the project, the Colombian art professionals I met were extraordinarily help- ful and went out of their way to provide me with information. Their open doors enabled me to gain insight into a new world, and their patience and willingness to talk to me made this inquiry a truly enriching experience. If I take away one thing from this thesis it is that the risk in Colombia is that you wish to stay. ¡El riesgo es, que te quieras quedar! I could not have completed this project without my family and friends. I could count on the unconditional assistance of my parents, Marianne Jäggi Aerne and Peter Aerne and of my sister, Ursina Aerne. Their reliability in critical moments as well as their interest in the advances of this project were an important source of support and motivation. I am particularly indebted to my mother Marianne Jäggi Aerne. She read every page of this thesis, and most of them in more than one version. Her critical, yet sympathetic reading and our subsequent discussions were indispensable in seeing inconsistencies and in finding alternatives. I could always count on support from Rolf Aerne and Alice Aerne and I am grateful for their generosity. Sometimes higher forces are needed to complete a project. This venture overcame its obstacles also due to the prayers of my two grand- mothers, Mina Aerne and Lotti Jäggi who convinced the stars to align. I thank Sonja Chiozza, Linda König, Lea Bühler, Céline Hofer, Claudia Ruckstuhl, Nhat Anh Truong, Rocío Robinson, Micaela Díaz-Rosaenz, Vanessa Boanada, Juan Fernando Palacios, Ashraf Montoya, Jason García, and Andreas Hugentobler for listening to my 3 A Network of Art Publics Acknowledgements doubts, but perhaps even more for our shared meals, drinks, salsa sessions and runs that relativized the importance of this project in a healthy way. I am especially grateful to Lea Bühler, Linda König, Céline Hofer, and Claudia Ruckstuhl who have each taken time to critically read through chapters, and correct and comment on them. I thank Jo Vederhus whose input on where else to look for data or how to do things more efficiently came in handy more than once. To read one’s thoughts in precise and elegant language is a blissful experience, and I am truly grateful to Roland Kley for his assistance in finding the right words. Particularly the theory chapter profited from his sharp analysis and carefully proposed amendments. I am very grateful to Oliver Westerwinter. His introduction to network analysis laid the groundwork of my first modelling intents. Christoph Frei’s advice in the process of writ- ing this thesis was of crucial importance, and his corrections of the introductory chapter smoothen the readers’ entry into this study. I am thankful for Enzo Nussio’s comments on the empirical part, the discussions with Patrick Emmenegger on the topic of cooperation, and Klaus Dingwerth on the concept of public sphere. My Spanish has improved, but is still far from being sufficient for many of the emails I undertook to send, and particularly the questionnaire I needed to develop for this project. I thank Sandra Carrasco and Juan Fernando Palacios for making my Spanish versions sound better than my original drafts in my mother tongue of German. Many thanks to Maya Müller whose lay outing skills have greatly improved this text’s readability. Also, I thank the university’s methodological office for their support in conceptualizing my survey. Translations of a different kind were those made from human into the programming language of R. The analysis of the data would have been much more difficult without Alexander Calderón, who has patiently helped me many times to convince the software to do as it was told. Moreover, his and Ed Schuh’s help in getting around in Bogotá was vital. To know that I could count on someone local in this huge city gave me a sense of security which greatly facilitated my field research. Bogotá would have been a very different experience without their company. I thank the Swiss School of Latin American Studies, previously ProDoc on the Dynam- ics of Transcultural Management and Governance in Latin America, for financing three stays in Bogotá for field research, as well as my attendance at four conferences. I also 4 A Network of Art Publics Acknowledgements thank all of the members of the ProDoc, for taking the time to read my drafts and discuss them with me. Many thanks to my colleagues at the Centro Latinoamericano–Suizo, Sarah Bühler, Ana Esquinas Rychen, Andrea Güpfert, and Alexander Griesser, as well as at the GOVPET project, Gina Di Maio, Lina Seitzl, and Daniel Unterweger, for taking an extra effort and reducing my work load during the final months of my dissertation. While I evidently had incredible support from many different sides, all faults in this thesis remain mine. “Me Vieron Cruzar” by Calle 13 highlights the importance of never giving up, and led the way for this project: Los deseos me vieron nacer Los árboles me vieron crecer El océano me vio navegar Las estrellas me vieron cruzar Las estrellas me vieron llegar Las estrellas me vieron perder Las estrellas me vieron ganar St.Gallen, December 2018 Annatina Aerne 5 To my sister and my parents 6 A Network of Art Publics Abstract Many galleries and independent art spaces have been newly established in Bogotá be- tween 2011 and 2015. This development contrasts with people’s general reluctance to participate in public life after decades of civil violence. One wonders how these art spaces encourage the revivification of a public sphere. The concept of public sphere, as developed by Jürgen Habermas, is adapted to the local context and to the purpose of this study. It is understood as the connection of small publics – physical spaces – in which people feel safe and are connected through shared experiences. The following research question guides the thesis: How does a public sphere come into existence? The research question is broken down into three sub-questions. (1) What conditions lead to the establishment of art organizations and their publics? (2) Which actors convene publics? (3) What factors promote the cooperation among art organizations and the co- alescence of their publics into a larger public sphere? The first two sub-questions are answered based on the analysis of 36 semi-structured expert interviews conducted in Bogotá in 2015 and 2016. The results highlight that the availability of resources to be spent on art, as well as governmental cultural policies that provide platforms, such as artBo have been important factors for the recent emergence of art organizations in Bo- gotá. The art boom has led to an increasing number of galleries and independent art spaces, but has not affected the museums. Particularly independent art spaces are important actors in convening publics. As they struggle to maintain their organizations they offer additional services that attract a wider public, such as film screenings. In order to answer the third sub-question, a survey gathered information on the cooperation and characteristics of 91 out of 129 (72%) of all the art organizations in Bogotá. This allowed the modeling of the cooperation patterns in the art circuit. The results of the exponential random graph models (ergm) show that more international organizations are more likely to be connected, and that profit-oriented art spaces are equally likely to foster the emergence of networks among art spaces. Moreover, contact to political offices concerned with cultural policy foster collaboration among art organizations. This challenges the idea of public sphere as a domestic process predominantly involving third sector actors. Art organizations’ connections reflect considerations about reputation, illustrating a dy- namic that is widely discussed in the literature on creative industries, but has been ne- glected in the literature on public sphere. 7 A Network of Art Publics Zusammenfassung Seit Kurzem lässt sich in Bogotá eine wachsende Anzahl von Neueröffnungen von Kunstorganisationen beobachten. Diese Zunahme von Kunstorganisationen bildet einen Gegensatz zum allgemeinen Gefühl der Unsicherheit, welches das Zusammenleben der lokalen Bevölkerung nach einem langen internen Konflikt prägt, und die Teilnahme am öffentlichen Leben reduziert.

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