Tag Archives: Banksy

Paris, streets

Paris: Banksy joins the celebrations of Mai 68 riots

While Paris has been celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the May 68 Riots with multiple exhibitions, elusive artist Banksy has hit the streets of the French capital with a series of new artworks.

May 68 in France – Ten million workers on strike, young people in the streets, public services at a standstill, a paralysed economy: the state faced a major social crisis which threatened to shake its very foundations. The entire country was affected, including all sectors of activity.

Facing the entrance of La Sorbonne University, Banksy put up a dark stencil of a man hiding a saw behind his back while an amputated dog is salivating looking up at a bone. Could be a play on words ‘Saw Bone’ which sounds similar to ‘Sorbonne’, but also is a very cynical symbol of our society, raising questions of sacrifice and perceived rewards from the powers in place.

Placement and context are always very important. This is where the major student demonstrations took place. Interestingly, less than 10 meters away from this ‘Saw & Bone’ stencil, Invader placed a pixelated commemoration plaque on the Place de La Sorbonne earlier this May.

Click on the pics to enlarge

Banksy painted additional little rats characters, with the tag 1968 and the 8 falling apart and being transformed into the bow of the famous Minnie mouse, nod to Disneyland, symbolising with his stencils that the 1968 uprising has lost its luster and morphed into capitalism.

Next to the Centre Pompidou, which hosts Le Musee d’art Moderne, the largest museum of modern art in Europe, Banksy painted a mischief rat, which was later transformed into a bigger one holding a cutter. He posted the caption on his Instagram: ‘Fifty years since the uprising in Paris 1968. The birthplace of modern stencil art.’ 

 

The entire city is celebrating the 50th Anniversary, from the streets to institutions. For further historical context about the 1968 riots, the Hotel de Ville is presenting historical pictures by photograph Gilles Caron who documented the student revolts while the Archives Nationales are showing the events of May-June 1968 as seen by the authorities of the time. Earlier in May we also shared the intervention of Spanish artist ESCIF on the external walls ‘Open Borders’ of the modern art institution Palais de Tokyo ( see full coverage here).

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Stay tuned as we continue our coverage of Banksy invasion of the French capital…

London

London: Banksy Vote Love

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Banksy - Vote to Love

For the 250th Anniversary of the Summer Exhibiton at the Royal Academy in London, Banksy submitted an artwork under the pseudonym Bryan S Gaakman, anagram of ‘banksy anagram’ and it was refused. However when curator Grayson Perry contacted him to submit something, Banksy did it again and it is now displayed in the gallery 3.

The artwork features a heart shaped balloon with plaster over a political board that was used for the Brexit referendum vote. The initial board favoured the ‘Leave’ campaign.
With his humorous style, the ‘Leave’ campaign has been replaced by a ‘Love’ statement. To add further irony, the price tag on the artwork is £350 millions, a nod to the infamous ‘Leave bus’ claiming that Britain would save £350m a week after Brexit.

The heart shaped balloon is an image close to Banksy, starting with his iconic Girl with Balloon (2002) who was also used worldwide for the #withSyria campaign in 2014

#Syria - Banksy London

The first Love Heart Balloon with plaster appeared at the MOCA exhibition ‘Arts in the Streets’ in Los Angeles in 2011.

Banksy
Pic by BirdMan

A Heart Balloon mural was painted in the streets of New York in 2013 during his artistic residency Better Out than In.

And a painted canvas  with the Heart Balloon was then sold in 2014 to support the Haitian Charity Auction for $650K.


Pic by Banksy

Throughout the years, Banksy expressed his views on political issues, and specially the Brexit.  We recall the mural in Dover in May 2017 featuring a worker chiselling away a star from the European Flag (see our previous coverage here).

Banksy in DoverBanksy in Dover

This was followed by the release of a revisited version of the Girl With Balloon featuring a heart with the Union Jack flag  for the UK Elections  in June 2017, which was later recalled due to criminal offence (covered)


Pic by Banksy

Banksy - Vote to Love

The 250th Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy features 1300 artworks from internationally renowned artists and exciting new talents.

Come back again soon for our full coverage on the exhibition.

250th Summer Exhibition
Royal Academy
Until 19 August 2018
Burlington House, Piccadilly,
London, W1J 0BD

Paris, streets

Paris: Banksy for World Refugee Day

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A new mural appeared in the streets of Paris . A black and white stencilled little girl standing on a wooden palette is painting a pink wallpaper over a Nazi cross.

It bears all the tales of Banksy. Timing and locations are key: It’s world Refugee Day and the artwork is located on the wall of dismantled refugee camp in the north of Paris.

Banksy - Porte de La Chapelle

It’s the first time that Banksy paints in Paris

The image is reminiscent of his 2009 artwork ‘Go flock yourself’, with the same wallpaper pattern.

The little girl is homeless as shown with her teddy bear and duvet stencilled on the lower part of the wall. Banksy continues to fight against xenophobia and continue to raise awareness about the refugee crisis.

Banksy - Porte de La Chapelle

Stay tuned for more Banksy news to come…

New York

New York: New Banksy invasion

We are always excited to see new works by elusive artist Banksy. He’s back to the streets of New York with a new stencil, featuring a rat running in a clock turned wheel, reminiscent of the incessant rat race.

It can be viewed between 14th and 6th Ave in Greenwich Village, so get there quick to see it in its glory before it gets ‘plexified’ or else.

New update:

On Thursday 15 March the famous Bowery Wall, which was previously painted by renown artists like Keith Haring, Os Gemeos, or  more recently Logan Hicks, unveiled a 70 feet new mural by Banksy, with the collaboration with graffiti artist Borf.

The mural protests the imprisonment of the Turkish artist and journalist Zehra Dogan, who was sentenced last March for painting the destruction of a Turkish town of Nusaybin, which was partly destroyed in 2015, with the country’s flag flying over rubble.

A screen shows a picture of Zehra Dogan’s painting with a message saying ‘sentenced to 2 years nine months and 29 days in jail for painting this picture’.

A series of hash bars like days in prison cell are numbered across the mural with one showing  Ms. Dogan looking at out of one of the cells, with her left hand gripping a bar that doubles as a pencil. “Free Zehra Dogan” is written in the bottom right corner

And there are more to come…. Stay tuned

Photo Credit: Banksy, nekyromero

Uncategorized

Video: Banksy ‘ Alternativity’ with Danny Boyle

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Following the reveal of two new street pieces earlier in Bethlehem (covered here) Banksy will be premiering  The Alternativity film on BBC Two this Sunday, the 17th of December,  an unique observational arts and documentary film directed by Danny Boyle.

This hour-long film follows director Danny Boyle on his travels to Bethlehem to capture a festive performance of the nativity, directed in collaboration between the Oscar-winning director and the local theater director, performance artist, actress and teacher at Bethlehem University, Riham Isaac.

The film premiere was announced with a new artwork from Banksy that mixes his commonly used chalk doodle style with more elaborate stencil and hand painted elements. In this particular case, the characters are doodled as simple stickmen figures, with obvious emphasis put on the drone hoovering above, one of the separation wall towers “watching” over them, and a can of CS tear gas, commonly used by the Israeli forces, laying in front of the stable. The image is a hint on the theme of the play and the movie, which places the story of nativity in the context of modern day Bethlehem, described by Banksy as “the least Christmassy place on earth.”

In advance of the screening, a short teaser presents the movie:

Also coming out this week end, an interview in the Financial Times where Banksy discusses about his many travels to Palestine and involvement in Bethlehem.

 

When asked by Financial Times Art Director Jan Dalley about the possible effectiveness of his art, Banksy mentions “There aren’t many situations where a street artist is much use,” he says. “Most of my politics is for display purposes only. But in Palestine there’s a slim chance the art could have something useful to add — anything that appeals to young people, specifically young Israelis, can only help.”