Banksy, the faceless artist with an unknown identity, the provocative street artist who interprets the great social and political problems of our time, who has conquered the world thanks to works imbued with irony, denunciation, politics, intelligence, protest, whose works are auctioned for millions of euros, returns to Rome, this time in style.
Over 100 works, from 8 September 2020 to 11 April 2021, will tell his world in a major exhibition to be held at the Chiostro del Bramante, entitled BANKSY A VISUAL PROTEST organized by DART Chiostro del Bramante in collaboration with 24 ORE Cultura e created by Madeinart.
The exhibition, already announced for spring 2020 but postponed due to the Covid-19 emergency. presents works from private collections and spans a time span from 2001 to 2017. Among these the famous Da Love is in the Air, Girl with Balloon, Queen Vic, Napalm, Toxic Mary, HMV. Visitors will also be able to admire the prints made for the “Barely Legal” exhibition and the recording projects for vinyl and CD covers.
"I really sucked with the spray can, so I started cutting out stencils" with the irony that has sewn on over the years, the 47-year-old English street artist (but can we believe it given the mystery that surrounds him?) explains the technique used by him for some of the works on display, prints on paper or canvas, which will appear alongside a selection of unique works created with different techniques from oil or acrylic on canvas to spray on canvas, stencil on metal or on concrete to some sculptures in painted polymer resin or varnished bronze.
And here is his idea: “Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everyone could draw wherever they wanted. Where every street was flooded with myriads of colors and brief expressions. Where waiting standing at the bus stop was never boring. A city that gave the impression of a party open to everyone, not just real estate agents and business tycoons. Imagine a city like this and move away from the wall – the paint is fresh”.
Presumably born in Bristol in the early seventies, Banksy is considered one of the greatest exponents of street art and was included in 2019 by ArtReview in fourteenth place in the ranking of the hundred most influential personalities in the art world. But no one, apart from his friends and closest collaborators, knows his identity.
Mockingly justifies himself as follows: “I don't know why people are so enthusiastic about making the details of private life public: invisibility is a superpower… I don't have the slightest interest in revealing my identity. There's enough snotty assholes trying to smack their ugly faces in front of you."
In reality, the choice to remain anonymous stems from a set of needs: the need to escape the police, given the carrying out of raids and illegal graffiti; protect yourself by considering the satirical background of his works that deal with sensitive topics such as politics and ethics; the desire not to pollute the perception of his identity and of his works, as stated by the artist himself.
What we know is that he was trained in the underground scene of the capital of South West England, where he collaborated with various artists and musicians and that his artistic production began in the late nineties. From this moment on, he began to invade numerous cities, from Bristol to London to New York to Jerusalem to Venice with graffiti and various performances and raids.
Banksy's is a direct communication, in the refusal of the system and the rules, the artist addresses his audience without filters, his works are visual texts capable of informing and making us think, a ruthless denunciation of the themes that permeate our present: war, wealth and poverty, globalization, consumerism, politics, power.
“The Art we admire is another of his claims – it is the product of a caste. A handful of few who create, promote, buy, exhibit and decree the success of the Art. Those who have a say will number no more than a few hundred. When you visit an art gallery you are just a tourist looking at some millionaire's trophy cabinet.
This is how his forays into the streets around the world are born: in 2019, in Birmingham where the protagonist is the bench on which a homeless man lives. In Venice where a Child, partially covered by the water of the canal, wears a life jacket and raises a signal flare towards the sky which gives off a dense and pink smoke. Also in Venice: in the Venice in oil performance, an itinerant painter exhibits nine oil canvases representing a cruise ship blocking the view of the city's monuments. In Port Talbot where he sets out two points of view for the same subject. A child who, under a snowfall, tries to grab the flakes with his tongue, or, turning the corner, the ash that comes from a burning dumpster. In Paris: where a mourning woman is drawn on the door of an emergency exit of the Bataclan. Still Paris: where near a former identification center for refugees appears a girl painting a swastika on it. Or even New York where a mural measuring over ten meters depicts the Kurdish artist Zehra Dogan imprisoned in Turkey.
BANKSY AT VISUAL PROTEST
Cloister of Bramante
INFORMATION AND RESERVATIONS
infomostra@chiostrodelbramante.it
OPENING HOURS
From Monday to Friday 10.00 – 20.00 Saturday and Sunday 10.00 – 21.00
(the ticket office closes one hour earlier)
