City and Artistic Production: A Cultural Geography Approach

In cultural geography, artistic creation and places of cultural expressions have not been of much interest by (French) geographers. This can be explained by the broad definition the French school of geography attributes to the term 'Culture'. However, artists can be regarded as true actors of the urban space, and more, their conception of the City can enlighten the geographer's. Moreover, the recent hatching of 'new art territories' in some unexpected places '” brown fields, abandoned sheds, derelict military areas, etc. '” located mostly on the margins of cities, incites to consider these 'UCO' ( 'Unidentified Cultural Objects'), that are local development catalysts, urban renewal paths. As such, they maintain an ambiguous relationship with their districts and catch the attention of the local authorities. This paper's objective is not only to rehabilitate the place of culture in the field of geography ; it has the ambition of proposing another approach to the so-called cultural geography at a time it is been questioned on it's very purpose and future.