Venice Archaeological Museum publishes ironic post on Agrigento telamon, controversy ensues

How far can an institution’s irony go on social media? That’s the question that social media managers of culture must be asking themselves in these hours after the lively controversy surrounding the National Archaeological Museum of Venice, which was guilty of publishing a post that mocked the project of reconstructing and raising the telamon of the Archaeological Park of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, which has been at the center of criticism in recent days. The Venetian museum is known for the lighthearted language that characterizes its social presence, but the post about its Sicilian colleagues was deemed excessive, and many in and around Agrigento resented it greatly.

What happened? The National Archaeological Museum in Venice posted two side-by-side photographs, one of the Agrigento telamon and one of the colossal statue of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa displayed in the courtyard of the Venetian museum, and commented on them using a process typical of social memes : one writes a comment of praise leading the user to believe that one of the two photos is being talked about, and then at the end it turns out that in fact the comment is referring to the other image, and the irony lies in attributing to the subject considered ’weak’, so to speak, the characteristics that one would instead expect referring to the ’strong’ element. In this case, the comment read, “On the one hand we have a colossal sculpture, erected in a historic artistic context of worldwide value, towering imposingly and thrilling the public with evocative force and monumental mass. On the other we have a telamon.” And then the invitation, “Messer Agrippa is waiting for you at the National Archaeological Museum in Venice, what are you waiting for?”

In short, a comment in the communicative style of the Venetian museum on social media, but it was enough to hurt the sensibilities of Sicilians. “I wonder if the management of the National Archaeological Museum of Venice,” one user wrote in comments to the post, “is aware of these posts of rare idiocy. The telamon of the largest Doric temple of Greekness, of one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, is mocked. Telamon corroded by time, part of a temple that was twice the size of the Parthenon. Eroded by a national, state museum. An institutional language and tone is needed. It’s not like it’s the middle school girl’s page.” “Dear Venetian friends,” writes another user, “if you really want I will allow you to criticize the Sicilians, but for everything related to history you have only to learn.” And again, “The fact that the National Archaeological Museum of Venice speaks of the telamon, albeit vainly attempting to diminish its majesty and importance, speaks volumes about the scale of the operation. It would have been nicer for the person who wrote the post to put his face and signature on it.” Many then even thought that the museum wanted to engage in some sort of competition with Sicily, so much so that another user commented, “We want to remember that the most beautiful city in the world, which is Venice, including all of Veneto, have a history not even remotely comparable to that of Sicily. When cows (and maybe not even cows) were grazing in those territories in the heart of the Mediterranean, the most extraordinary and varied civilization in the world flourished.”

Joke on the foot soldiers but leave the saints alone? If ’saints’ also become the tutelary deities of a region’s cultural heritage, then it would really seem that one cannot joke with the telamons either: so, under the rain of negative comments that were coming in under the post, the Archaeological Museum of Venice deleted it, without, however, at least at the moment, publishing messages of apology as well as many have asked for. The museum is no stranger to such posts: when the Open to Wonder campaign was launched, for example, the institute had made itself the protagonist of another ’institutional parody,’ so to speak, by publishing the same photograph of the Venus of the Ministry of Tourism, but changing its image to that of a dinosaur, accompanied by an ironic comment on the concept of beauty. So now the question is: did the institute’s communication go too far, or are those who felt touched by the post too touchy?

Venice Archaeological Museum publishes ironic post on Agrigento telamon, controversy ensues

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