ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the socio-political debate on the roles, functions and conditions of the arts and of artists in the development of urban space. It describes the situation of a relatively young neighbourhood cultural space, and cooperation between art and cultural workers and a municipal housing company in the city of Malmö in southern Sweden. The initiative of the artists and cultural workers is rooted in the local shortage of studio space, and represents a response to unfruitful conversations between the city, developers, and cultural workers. Using the conceptual lens of relational space, this chapter shows how actors—informed by local cultural strategies and their own very different needs and ideas—continuously negotiate the conditions of cooperation. The chapter identifies several relationships taking the form of neighbourhood-level service exchanges, stabilising the space over the long term. Since spatial politics are closely linked to conditions of art and cultural work, the case presents a possibility to conceptualise and organise differently.
