Dancing between Art and Commerce: The Analysis of Art Agent Curatorial Companies

I used blockbuster as the strategy of observing art promotion in Taiwan. I research art agent curatorial company and try to understand how art and commerce interpenetrated by actors’ operation when art agent curatorial company participate in holding blockbuster.

This research proposes that art and commerce neither the hostile logic, nor the reducible single logic. They are coexist and interpenetrated. Exchange not only embed in networks, but also conducted in particularized social and cultural settings with emotional interaction and mutual construction. Hence, I also focus on the symbols and hidden transcripts of the art agent curatorial companies for knowing what kind of images they preserve and what kind of value they abandon.

There are many actively market actors are engaging in developing the blockbuster market, which shows that the development of blockbuster in Taiwan is becoming common rather than rare and becomes one part of the industrialization of art agent curatorial company. Except United Daily News Group and China Times Group, two of the major art agent curatorial companies hold blockbuster in the past, in recent years there are Artsource Corp., Cityxculture Co Ltd, Universal Impression Co Ltd., and Kham Ticket joining in this vigorous market. They independently have their own possession and try to make profit in the market by enlarging their business scale.

These art agent curatorial companies are not completely competitive. The relationship among them is “competitive and cooperative at the same time”. Their organizations, social capitals, coefficient networks, and cultural capital affect the process of holding blockbuster. Besides, we can see multiple role perceptions of planners by observing how these companies operate blockbusters differently. I classify three different role perceptions which are negotiator, promoter of cultural product, and sower of cultural. I assert that these three perceptions are coexisting in every planner I interviewed. When they encounter different actors or need to make various decisions, they have to adjust the balance among these three roles.

There are still many things play important part in preparing blockbusters, such as theme decision, reasonable profit control, unspeakable hidden transcripts and so on. They are not only related to the role perceptions, but also constructed by diverse composition of social relationships. How the planners of art agent curatorial companies communicate with different actors in the market and how they manipulate in the process affects what kind of blockbuster we see today. Using art agent curatorial companies as the strategy to research is just a good chance for us to understand the development of industrialization of blockbuster, and reflect the issues about art agent and cultural promotion in our society.