2019 Dissertation Department of Business Administration v Exchangification of Art : Transforming street art into market products | Hanna Borgblad : Art Exchangification of The commodification of art continues to be a controversial phe- nomenon, riddled with tensions regarding the relationships between art and commerce. Although the phenomenon has been studied extensively in various fields, knowledge about more specific process- es and practices through which works of art become transformed into market products remains limited. In response, this thesis turns to the case of graffiti and street art as art forms in which tensions regarding art and its commodification are particularly present. The thesis explores how graffiti and street art are transformed into market products by introducing the concept of “exchangification”. Involving practices of objectification, classification, and valuation, exchangification entails the continued negotiation of the balance between legitimacy and authenticity, which enables artworks to remain as artworks while at the same time become products ready for market exchange. The thesis affords a detailed understanding of how graffiti and street art are made exchangeable, and contributes to the understanding of the commodification of art, as well as of Exchangification of Art market processes more generally. Johan Hagberg, Professor Transforming street art into market products School of Business, Economics and Law University of Gothenburg Hanna Borgblad Hanna Borgblad is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Business Administration at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. ISBN 978-91-628-9925-7 Exchangification of Art Transforming street art into market products Hanna Borgblad To my parents, to my sisters, and to Ivroj Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, PhD., in Business Administration Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Law at University of Gothenburg, 19 December 2019 Department of Business Administration School of Business, Economics and Law University of Gothenburg PO Box 610 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden www.fek.handels.gu.se Photos taken by Hanna Borgblad © Hanna Borgblad, 2019 ISBN: 978-91-88623-17-1 GUPEA: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/61760 Printed in Sweden by Repro Lorensberg, Gothenburg 2019 Abstract Art markets are filled with tensions, often explained as an inevitable dichotomy between arts and commerce. During the last century, this phenomenon has been defined as the commodification of art. Crucial for the commodification of art is the transformation of artworks into market products, and the role of the artist as a producer of these market products. For graffiti and street art – art forms that are traditionally anti-commercial, unsanctioned, and ephemeral but nevertheless found in art markets – this tension is particularly present. Previous research on art markets has addressed several complexities involved in art commodification, including aspects of valuation, pricing, and questions of legitimacy and authenticity. However, scant attention has been paid to the specific process of how artworks become exchangeable. This thesis explores this process by attending to the concrete practices that enable the transformation of graffiti and street art into exchangeable art market products. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork, consisting of interviews, observations and archival sources, and draws on constructivist market studies literature and pragmatist research on commodification. The thesis develops the concept of exchangification, which denotes the overall process through which artworks are transformed into market products. Exchangification involves three major categories of practices: objectification (making artworks materially ownable and transferable), classification (defining and relating categories to each other and placing artworks in categories), and valuation (making artworks valuable by producing and calculating values). The exchangification process helps to explain how the dichotomy between arts and commerce unfolds in practice. The thesis shows that in order to exchangify mobile and mural artworks into exchangeable market products, the actors involved – artists, mediators, buyers – negotiate aspects of legitimacy and authenticity through objectifying, classifiying and valuating practices. This negotiation is bi-directional. On the one hand, it strives for legitimacy by detaching subcultural characteristics and attaching conventional art market qualities. On the other hand, it strives for authenticity by re-attaching subcultural characteristics to sustain the artworks’ authenticity and credibility. This thesis brings new knowledge about the phenomenon of art commodification to the arts marketing literature. It sheds new light on how art markets operate, and what constitutes the specific process in the commodification of art that produces exchangeable market products. Previously, this process has been defined as a phase of “commodity candidacy” of an object. With this thesis, it has been refined and developed into a more substantial definition: the process of exchangification. Keywords: exchangification, commodification, arts marketing, market practice, authenticity, legitimacy, graffiti, street art Acknowledgments There are many people to whom I would like to send my warmest thanks. In one way or another, you have all been of importance during the writing of this thesis. First, to my supervisors, Johan Hagberg and Peter Zackariasson: thanks a million! Without your critical readings, spot-on advice, warm encouragement and support, this thesis would have been a messy manuscript with artworks, artists and processes spinning all over the place. I have learned so much from you. You’re simply the best. To my fellow PhD students at Handels during these years, particularly Anna Grzelec, Irina Balog, Erik Gustafsson, Jonas Jakobsson, Bianca Koroschetz, Sandra Samuelsson, Sandhiya Goolaup, Henrik Jutbring, Gabriella Wulff, Misty Rawls, Ulises Navarro Aguiar, and Markus Brogeby: thank you for being a warm and friendly PhD collective, for sharing thoughts, “writing bubbles”, painkillers and dance floors, and for making me laugh every day at work. Also, to the people in the department of Business Administration, in particular Kajsa Lundh and Stefan Sjögren, thank you for your incredible support. Hans Kjellberg and Finola Kerrigan, thank you for your thorough readings of my thesis drafts and your suggestions for improvements at the half way seminar and internal final seminar. Thank you Jacob Kimvall for your expert reading of my manuscript. All idiomatic and factual errors related to graffiti and street art in this thesis are entirely my own. Thank you to all informants who have shared your time, knowledge and thoughts with me and have introduced me to this world of graffiti and street art. Especially thanks to those who have also taken me to hidden and remote graffiti locations during fieldwork. You know who you are! Being a PhD student means that one sometimes has to leave head quarters and work with fellow researchers in other parts of the world. Thank you Riikka Murto, Ingrid Stigzelius and Carlos Diaz Ruiz for our conference adventures in Fayetteville in June 2015. Riikka, thank you also for our in-between-conferences escapades in Chicago, involving ballet classes, nightclub surprises and foodie experiences. Trine Pallesen, José Ossandón and all people at IOA (especially the PhD students!) at Copenhagen Business School, thank you for hosting me as a visiting PhD during the fall of 2016 and for inviting me to give a seminar at the Markets and Valuations research group. I returned from CBS with many fruitful comments on my work. I would also like to thank Kerstin Decroix and my fellow grantees at Hôtel Chevillon for a beautiful writing retreat in Grez-sur-Loing in May 2016. Finally, thanks to all my amazing loved ones outside academia. Thank you Linus Blixt (and your family) for encouraging me to embark on my PhD studies, and for being a dear friend. And thank you to my fabulous crews: Juntan and Mastrarna. Not only are you the wisest and funniest women in the world, with hearts of gold, I am extremely lucky to have you as my best friends. Thank you for being wonderful listeners, amazingly hilarious, and for giving the best life goal advices. Last, my warmest thanks go to my parents, Magnus and Eva, and to my sisters, Frida, Karin and Klara. You have always been the safest place on earth. Thank you for always showing that you love, support and believe in me. Hanna Borgblad, November 2019 Table of Contents 1 (Non-) exchangeable artworks ................................................................... 1 Graffiti and street art ................................................................................... 3 Controversies of art commodification ......................................................... 6 A study on the exchangification of graffiti and street art ............................ 8 Purpose and research question ................................................................. 9 Outline of the thesis ............................................................................... 11 2 Literature review ...................................................................................... 13 Arts marketing: A broad and multidisciplinary research area ................... 13 To commodify or not to commodify ..................................................... 14 Key aspects