The Art Market as Social Network in Bogotá: Towards a Public Sphere through Cooperation among Colombian Art Organizations

This paper asks whether the recent art boom in Bogotá, mostly driven by an international demand also contributes to build a public sphere, conceptualized as a participatory network of inter-organizational alliances among art organizations. The question is interesting because Colombian contemporary art has experienced a boom in the past 5 years, with many new art organizations surging in Bogotá. It is also relevant as Colombian society has been torn by an internal conflict rendering the establishment of connections amongst citizens most valuable. To address this question, the cooperation among art or-ganizations in Bogotá from 2011 – 2015 is analyzed. The forms of cooperation examined are twofold. Of interest is the sharing of content across art organizations, building a shared imaginary. Second, the circulation of people across different art spaces, relating different publics is examined. The network data was gathered in an online survey in 2016 and cover the cooperation patterns of 91 out of the 128 art organizations situated in Bogotá over the past five years. The networks are analyzed relying on a temporal exponential random graph model, which allows identifying the characteristics of those or-ganizations that cooperate more in a time-consistent way.