Saturday, 7 November, close to a couple of hundred local and international artists, cultural funders, administrators, curators and writers are seated in a convivial setting around the red and white checkered tables in Stockholm’s stadsteater. We’re at an intimate distance from the stage, from each other. The curators and co-organisors of the event Maria Lind and Anna Livion set out to question the levels of intimacy between funders and contemporary artists: this kind of intimacy is what Maria calls schmoozing, a word that suggests intimacy and manipulation at the same time. Also wonderfully onomatopoeic somehow. But it’s a hard reality: private funding involves a constant amount of schmoozing, and arguably the schmooze factor to procure public funding is on the rise too. Having an amiable relationship with the secretary of a fund gives you a distinct advantage. Networking has become (or perhaps always has been) a categorical imperative.