London museum-goers fall for cracking new exhibit

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

LONDON (AFP) — Visitors to London's Tate Modern gallery are encouraged to actively engage with a divisive new work -- and some, it seems, are taking the request too literally.

The new exhibit, Shibboleth, by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo consists of a 167 metre-long crack in the floor of the cavernous Turbine Hall.

The work is intended to symbolise the gap between white Europeans and the rest of humanity.

Unfortunately, some visitors have been so distracted by the impressive surroundings that they have unwittingly fallen into the crack, around one foot (or 30 centimetres) wide in places, the museum told AFP on Wednesday.

"Three visitors missed their footing and tripped in the Turbine Hall. They were attended to immediately by Tate security staff...