Rediscovering art between technology, social media and the reopening of museums and fairs.

By now the whole of Italy is returning to the white zone, as white as the light at the end of the dark tunnel of the lockdown that has kept us locked in our homes, or outside but with so many restrictions that we no longer want to go out. With the arrival of summer and the loosening of the restrictions that have conditioned most of 2021, as well as 2020, with the reopening of restaurants and shops, places of conviviality for citizens, finally reopening those places that have suffered a huge loss with the pandemic, places of art and culture such as cinemas and museums. The latter, together with exhibitions and art in general, are one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic crisis. Re-opening a museum or organising an art exhibition, however, is more complex and difficult than re-opening a bar, restaurant or business. Without taking anything away from this sector, for a museum, it is not enough to put up a shutter, call in suppliers, put out tables and chairs and be up and running again in a couple of days.

During this long pause, the art world and museums have had to ask themselves questions and prepare themselves in order to understand what the best strategy is to start up again, considering that the first few moments will undoubtedly see a reduced number of visitors. It is important to realise that for a few years the reserve of mass tourism will not be enough. In order to get off to a great start, the idea is not only to have in-person contact with the work of art, but also to integrate it with the virtual and digital world.

The trend towards the online world was already in the air, but the pandemic has, whether we like it or not, accelerated the pace in a very fast way, promoting almost futuristic changes.

However, simply transferring the content of collections online, organising seminars, guided tours or in-depth studies on virtual platforms is not enough, it does not work, it is not effective in restarting and it is sad and melancholic. We need to take a step forward and make the most of the potential of the web and social media.

Some examples of this change are the lectures by the director of the Egyptian Museum, Christian Greco, who has reached over a million unique views (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg2dFdDRRClGtp33i7xqUwFO82TEVnMz2 ), and the mini-videos posted on Tik Tok by the Uffizi (www.tiktok.com/uffizigalleries ).

Obviously and fortunately, the art world is not only made up of museums, but also of art fairs which will unfortunately be absent for a long time yet. In fact, some of the fairs planned for the coming months have not yet been confirmed, such as the inauguration of Miart in September, but we still do not know if it will take place.

Others, however, which had been postponed in the wake of the pandemic, began their activities in May, such as the Architecture Biennial which began on the 22nd and an exhibition on American art from 1961 to 2001, which was also postponed and began on the 28th in Florence at Palazzo Strozzi.

With the seven hundredth anniversary of Dante's death, various activities are planned throughout Italy, in particular at the MAR in Ravenna from September.

The forecasts on the calendar are encouraging and positive, and the tendency is towards medium-sized exhibitions, not too expensive to produce and organise; small and innovative exhibitions, also exploiting technology and what it can offer us. However, one wonders what the trend will be for artists after a long stop, what they will decide to produce, whether works conditioned by the reflections and consequences of the pandemic, or whether they will prefer a fresh start, leaving the drama behind, filing it away.

We will have to wait for the fairs to be held in large pavilions, but one thing is certain: people are eager to return to admire art, artists, collections, exhibitions and to visit museums and galleries.

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