ABSTRACT
This chapter presents ethnographic reflections on the growth of the Brazilian market of contemporary art in the years following the 2008 global economic crisis. This growth was promoted by the Brazilian government, market players, and a favorable local economic context in contrast with the catastrophic economic scenario endured by the major global powers. The idea of the Brazilian market growth, reproduced in the media and within the art market itself, underwent efforts of calculation, analyses of constructions, and the promotion of images of an expanding market. Brazilian market actors reiterated the idea that “works of art are a good way to protect one's money from depreciation” in times of economic instability. The chapter explores how people related to the market in question and the Brazilian government built the Latitude project, an actor capable of calculating its own market and disseminating self-produced images about it.
