Art Exhibit Made to Look Like 'Endless Chasm' Claims Victim

Luckily, visitor who got too close to Anish Kapoor's 8-foot-deep hole at Portugal museum will be OK
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 21, 2018 7:12 AM CDT
Museum Visitor Gets Too Close to 'Endless Chasm'
Stay away from the edge of any large-looking hole, even if it's not Anish Kapoor's hole.   (Getty Images/triloks)

The "dizzying experience" of peering down into an "endless chasm in space" made a visitor to Portugal's Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art especially woozy, reports Artnet, and now the 60-year-old man is recuperating from his injuries. Last week, the Italian in Porto was checking out Chicago "Bean" creator Anish Kapoor's "Descent Into Limbo"—an installation that features a concrete room with what appears to be a deep black hole in the middle—when an incident happened involving the "bottomless pit." The Art Newspaper says it's not clear whether the visitor plummeted into the hole or fell next to it, and the museum press officer's curt message didn't clarify things: "An accident happened. Now this installation is temporarily closed."

Luckily for the hapless visitor, the hole isn't actually unfathomable: It's just 8 feet deep, with the sides painted black to make it appear deeper than it really is. The fall into or near the "void" happened despite security and signs cautioning visitors about the exhibit. In the injured party's defense, Gizmodo points out the hole "appears to have no depth at all … like a real-life version of a 'Looney Tunes' cartoon." On Friday, a museum rep said the apparently disoriented tourist has already left the hospital; the London Times reports he suffered back injuries. Meanwhile the exhibit will be open again for viewing (but hopefully not stumbling over) "in a few days," the rep noted. (This 90-year-old ruined a work of art, had an unusual reaction.)

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