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Artistic districts demonstrate the spatialization of artistic activities in urban space, particularly their tendency towards concentration. Today they symbolise both economic development and urban attractiveness in a time where art is a key element of symbolic production. Defining an artistic district is not straightforward and using this concept encourages us to consider the processes which lead to the emergence of a spatialised collective identity based on artistic creation. This paper aims to understand the processes of formation and perpetuation of artistic creation districts in two major European cities: Paris and Berlin. The research is based on the comparison of Montreuil and Neukölln, both situated in a pericentral area of metropolitan space and where numerous artists live and work. The analysis of spatial practices and representations related to setting up of creative activities in particular neighbourhoods shows that the territorialization embedded in the recognition of an artistic district is primarily defined by the artists' practices themselves. This takes place through the visibility of their presence, the aesthetisation of public spaces or through their collective organisation around cafés and meeting places or in locally anchored artistic networks. Recognition by inhabitants as well as economic and political support also play a prominent role in the definition and recognition of a collective identity of an artistic district. In this way, several actors are involved in the construction of an urban territory of artistic creation that mirrors the concept of artistic district as it is used in urban history; every individual being part of the specific history, meaning and recomposition of the artistic district in cities such as Paris or Berlin.