This article explores what alternative, or artist-led, spaces are in Mumbai today and their role within the city’s artworld. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in two alternative spaces, it argues that these are artist attempts to exercise agency in their work for an uncertain market context. In other words, these spaces are a strategy for artists to exercise control over their work in an uncertain art market, and a means to counterbalance their dependence on galleries in their careers. Furthermore, artists do so through collectivist practices. These spaces, I argue, challenge models of artistic and neoliberal work that privilege autonomy, independence, and isolation, as if artists were self-contained silos of productive creative activity and will. Artists instead, in these spaces, insist on the importance of social bonds and connection as a challenge to the instrumentalization and divisive nature of market-led demands on art practice and the model of the solo genius artist-producer. At the same time, their collective activities are oriented towards supporting artists’ individual future market success, suggesting that artist-led spaces are not separate from the art market, and should be considered within the same analytical frame.

中文翻译：

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艺术市场中的另类空间与艺术家代理

本文探讨了当今孟买有哪些替代空间或艺术家主导的空间，以及它们在城市艺术界中的作用。它在两个替代空间中利用人种学田野调查，认为这是艺术家在不确定的市场环境下试图在其作品中行使代理权的尝试。换句话说，这些空间是艺术家在不确定的艺术市场中对其作品进行控制的一种策略，并且是一种平衡他们在职业生涯中对画廊的依赖的手段。此外，艺术家通过集体主义实践来这样做。我认为，这些空间对艺术和新自由主义作品的模型提出了挑战，这些模型赋予自治，独立和孤立的特权，就好像艺术家是独立的生产活动和意愿的孤岛。艺术家们在这些地方 坚持认为社会纽带和联系的重要性是对市场主导的对艺术实践和天才艺术家生产者模型的工具化和分裂性的挑战。同时，他们的集体活动以支持艺术家个人未来的市场成功为导向，这表明艺术家主导的空间与艺术市场不是分开的，应该在同一分析框架内加以考虑。