Bringing worlds together

Through the ethnography of two musical “creative residencies” in Paris and Mulhouse, this article examines the way in which the actors involved (musicians, cultural players, technicians) stage and negotiate aesthetic categories, arrange space to bring about and resolve controversies, and occupy the “residency” as a creative space. The ethnographic analysis goes beyond the actors’ statements to consider the way in which the musicians’ gestures confirm or contradict those assertions in creating worlds, places, and spatial configurations.