The original Bubble Magazine page places the incident in November 2019. The museum organised a terrorist-threat drill during the artists’ visit, and the recording later became an editorial account of visitors being managed as a crowd. The video was uploaded 3 December 2019, after the recorded incident.
2019-11 Uffizi evacuation incident in Florence
Bubble Magazine issue record
The failed attempt to visit the Uffizi Gallery in Florence or backdoor view on the institutional events of contemporary art in the spirit of gonzo journalism.
It happened so that when we went to the Uffizi to watch Botticelli, the museum's service decided to conduct exercises, with visitors as experimental material. Having received the order to remove everyone from the museum as quickly as possible, the museum caretakers turned on the alarm and began to do everything to complete it. People were arbitrarily transferred from their condition to the mass status. They suddenly turned out to be part of the object of power manipulation.
There could be nothing strange if this happened at the train station. Still, in the museum, everything got the meaning of a performative situation in which truth is manifested as it usually happens to art's nature. Both visitors and staff felt this unpleasant truth. Often, the situation's strangeness does not correspond to any experience and, without barriers, leads to a gradual but rapid dehumanization. Five minutes later, the caretakers realized that we were recording a performance. Coming to the sense of the scene, they began to lose their temper, drag and push us right on the stairs, trying to grab the camera.
Annual documentation, 2019