From Territory to Museum

A/r/tography, Symbolic Cartography, and Artistic Entrepreneurship in Depopulated Contexts

Abstract

This study explores artistic entrepreneurship as a strategy for cultural revitalization and social cohesion in rural contexts affected by depopulation. Drawing on a collaborative and participatory process of social mapping, the study analyzes how artistic practice can operate as a method that connects situated knowledge production, community engagement, and public cultural projection. The research is articulated around three analytical axes: (1) collaborative artistic practices as vehicles of memory, belonging, and recognition; (2) participatory mapping as a process of cultural placemaking and community leadership; and (3) the transformation of collaborative processes into public cultural outputs, with the exhibition understood as a form of artistic entrepreneurship with social projection. The methodology combines the analysis of discursive fragments and visual artefacts—intervened stones, photographs, and site-based installations—interpreted as symbolic mediations in the construction of place-based meaning. The results show that collective artistic creation not only strengthens identity and memory but also activates collaborative networks, fosters local leadership, and projects rural narratives to wider audiences. The findings highlight the capacity of artistic entrepreneurship to generate expanded cultural and social value beyond aesthetic outcomes, offering a replicable methodological model for sustainable cultural development and the strengthening of social capital in depopulated rural communities.