Working as an artist. Strategies, practices and representations of artistic work among young circus artists

Abstract

The persistence of the notion by which art is presented as a differential and autonomous field, has led to the invisibility of the labor dimension of artistic practices settling dichotomous social representations about art and work. Consequently, this is an area which has been almost unexplored in the field of research on Youth and Work. However, many artists and many young people work through the art they perform. Based on the case of circus artists in the city of Buenos Aires, we will discuss this idea of opposition between arts and work analyzing the labor market, the work strategies and the significance that artists give to their practices. We will study the distinctions between the characteristics of these artistic and labor practices in the decade of 1990 and the current situation regarding recent changes in the labor market and the shift in the legitimacy occupied by circus arts.