Paper short abstract:

By exploring an art work entitled PIPOCA ROSA made in Brazil in the early 2000s, this paper discusses how Bourdieu's idea of "social field" came into play through the creation and circulation of this art work.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to provide an ethnographic account of an art work entitled PIPOCA ROSA (Pink Popcorn), produced by a group of artists that worked and lived in the Brazilian city of Curitiba during the early 2000s. By taking this specific example, the aim is to discuss the fact that contemporary art is informed by social theories and the role that such theories play in the production and circulation of art. The main interest is to reflect on how social theories corroborate with the images that the contemporary art actors make of their own territory. I argue that these artists as well as other art agents theorize on visual contemporary art based on Bourdieu's idea of "social field", a perspective that provides them with a vision of their relationships with other actors that greatly affect the way they produce and circulate their own art work. Therefore, such works do not reveal the borders of an already existing and defined social field, but rather produce it by means of the circulation of objects and people; and tension the relationship between the social theories and thought schemes of the people that such theories refer to.

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