Communications officer 2: What….has the Lotteries Commission pulled the plug?
CO1: No, I’ve just got the final attendance figures for Venice.
CO2: That’s good, isn’t it? Simon Denny was a huge success, every major curator in the world came to see it, the party was the talk of Upper Italy, we had more art world publicity than we’ve ever had, it was right up there on every don’t-miss-it list, and the work sold faster than a speeding ticket.
CO1: So?
CO2: So that’s a good thing….isn’t it?
CO1: It would be if the numbers were better. The fact is fewer people went to the Denny exhibition than the last time we went to Venice.
CO2: How many fewer?
CO1: Around three sixths of the amount it cost in dollars to get those climate change protesters off the Parliament building a few months ago.
CO2: (thinks) That means Denny got only .91743110 percent less than the time before.
CO1: People will see it as a complete disaster. We need a way to present it so it doesn’t jump out.
CO2: But it was the most spectacularly successful thing we…. have…. ever….done….
CO1: (cold, hard stare)
CO2: Oh, ok. …..I’ve got an idea, how about, 'More than half a million people attended (the Venice Biennale) this year and around two fifths of them visited the Secret Power installation….'
And that is what they did.
