The Italian cultural sector has a large number of influencers. At least that’s what it looks like. He emerged when Chiara Ferragni (Forbes’ biggest fashion influencer in 2017) recently visited the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence for a session with Vogue Hong Kong.
While observing the paintings in the museum, the blogger and entrepreneur posed in front of the famous Sandro Botticelli’s Venus, and posted the photo on her Instagram feed, recommending her followers to visit the museum. The same did the Uffizi account, portraying Ferragni with the caption “Beauty standards change in the course of time”, and describing her as “a sort of contemporary divinity in the era of social media”.
As a public figure with constant follow-up (20 million on Instagram alone), the images provoked many reactions. While it got more than 35,000 likes, many reviews also criticized Ferragni and the museum’s selection to provide it. “This message is crazy. If the Uffizi also pursue Chiara Ferragni, we are in a very bad situation …”, wrote someone. “Is it convenient to compare Venus to Chiara Ferragni?” commented another.
A debate began to take place, then reflect on the precept of the commercialization of art and museums, and the methods that the cultural sector deserves to take to attract visitors. The tourist and cultural attractions in the country have been heavily affected by the coronavirus crisis (Italy expects a loss of 35 million foreign tourists by 2020), so they will have to look for tactics for themselves.
The director of the Uffizi galleries, Eike Schimdt, defended his choice, reporting that after Ferragni’s visit, the museum recorded a presence of 9,300 visitors over the weekend, and 27% of young people. In an interview with the newspaper Repubblica, he added: “There were many spaces and, worse, an avalanche of sexist comments opposed to a self-taught woman. This controversy shows that the globalization of culture is complete. of chauvinism and also of snobism on the part of those who create themselves an exclusive elite.
However, critics have addressed the fact that art cannot be trivialized and that young people’s indifference to culture is due to the low level of schooling of the new generations. “The fact is that as adults, we provide everything like sugar to our youth and schoolchildren to make them hornier. We make them simple for life to go smoothly. And that’s not true,” the instructor and Giancarlo Visitilli said in an article by Repubblica.
On the other hand, the proponents noted that while public figures, regardless of their mastery of experience, manage to stimulate youth participation in the cultural life of the country, this cannot be a problem. Among those who have spoken in favor is Mahmood, a 27-year-old singer and artist who won the Sanremo Festival, Italy’s top-noted musical show, in 2019. He himself recently made a video of a song at the Egyptian Museum in Turin: the song is titled “Dorado” (Spanish for “Golden”) and intends to celebrate his Egyptian roots.
Asked by Ferragni in an interview with Corriere della Sera, he commented: “She did not pass there for the party, she did not spoil anything, on the contrary, I think she provided useful support. If your scale in the step encourages it to happen, what is wrong? “
In his music video, Mahmood dances in one of the Egyptian museum’s most vital halls, the Vault of The Statues. “I’ve never been there before. Without delay I felt the feeling of the greatness of history. I think other young people used to go to museums … but some things you can’t be satisfied to see only on social media: when you see them live, they have a totally different power.
The debate on the subject in Italy is far from over, however, as Italian museums suffer an economic loss of 20 million euros ($23 million) each month due to the coronavirus crisis, maintaining a higher spotlight in museums deserves help. . According to Fabio Fornasari, architect and museumologist, “While social networks and virtual teams cannot update the complexity of a museum’s ecosystem, they allow us to experiment with a different, fast, undeniable and direct language to bring their content to a new audience. Using it is not a sin, however, is to keep in mind that it is other people who help in the cultural field.
I am an independent, free-spirited worker, contributing to the Italian and international media. I write for Linkiesta.it, Business People and Euronews.