Abstract
Rather than focusing on "arts" in general - a much too broad perspective for a genuine sociological approach - i will specifically address visual arts, and still more specifically contemporary art practices. Relying on various surveys, i will try to show the reciprocal inter-dependency between artists' practices, mediators' or art specialists' actions and viewers' expectancies and reactions to artistic propositions. i intend to demonstrate how "pragmatic sociology", as we now call it in France, helps in describing and understanding the specificity of given actions in their real context - be it spatial and temporal, institutional, cognitive or emotional. Such an issue is all the more relevant in the case of contemporary art.
Keywords
Contemporary art; Pragmatic sociology; Visuals arts; Artist practices; Mediators