Eike Schmidt: the world of culture is full of puzzalnasism and machismo

“Puzzalnasism”: coined a new term by the director of the Uffizi, Eike D. Schmidt, to dismiss to sender the criticism that arose around the photo shoot thatinfluencer Chiara Ferragni shot Friday in the Florentine museum. He does so in aninterview with Gaia Rau for Repubblica, where he has his say not only on the affair, but in general on the communication line adopted by the museum, starting with the videos on TikTok (another presence that many have criticized, though without reaching the polemical levels of the Ferragni case). But (it should be specified for the potentially outraged), the problem is not Ferragni, because Schmidt’s discourse is broader. And as a result, the German art historian does not miss an opportunity to let people know what he thinks about a part of the cultural milieu.

But let’s go in order. Meanwhile, Schmidt emphasizes that similar initiatives are designed primarily to bring young people closer to the Uffizi: “That of young people,” says the gallery director, “is a problem we had before, for example when we invited the stars of the Firenze Rocks festival to visit our museums. Our goal, however, is not only economic. We have a democratic vision of the museum: our collections belong to everyone, not only to a self-proclaimed cultural elite, but especially to the younger generations. Also because if young people do not establish a relationship with cultural heritage today, it is unlikely that they will want to invest in culture in the future, when they are the new stewards. That is why it is important to use their language, to intercept their irony and their creative potential.” And Schmidt also pinpoints a specific culprit to blame for driving many away from museums and beyond: “in Italy, the progressive cuts to education in successive decades have deeply undermined the relationship of citizens with artistic heritage.”

As for the need to have to gain visibility through Chiara Ferragni (another of the criticisms aimed at the museum), Schmidt responds that “the Uffizi does not need Chiara Ferragni, nor does Chiara Ferragni need the Uffizi. The important thing is to create a crossover, to trigger a confrontation. With our post on Instagram we also wanted to provoke a debate about fetishization: the one that has been created around Simonetta Vespucci, perhaps a model for the Venus.” The photo shoot for Vogue, moreover, Schmidt points out, “axes in collaboration with a nonprofit organization working on education and youth in Asia, one of the most important in the world committed to these issues.”

But Schmidt has plenty for the many who have criticized the photos posted by the museum on its social accounts: according to the director, there has been a lot of superficiality and “an avalanche of sexist comments against a self-made woman.” Comments “in which I read a lot of antipathetic and worrying social envy,” Schmidt pressed in conclusion, “especially, I must say, from Italians. This has convinced me of the need to work on gender equality even more deeply than we already do, with nine exhibitions dedicated to women artists hosted so far. This controversy has proven two things: that the world of culture is full of machismo, as well as the ’puzzalnasism’ of those who feel they are an exclusive elite.”

Pictured: Eike Schmidt and Chiara Ferragni.

Eike Schmidt: the world of culture is full of puzzalnasism and machismo

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