All posts tagged: Bristol

Saving Banksy

I can be short about this one: the Banksy exhibition ‘The Art of Banksy’ (last week still in Amsterdam, now in Antwerp) is a tourist trap. If you are really into Banksy, there are other options. Do not believe the hype that it’s a must-go exhibition, whatever the media or the so called experts try to make you believe. The entire setting is wrong. Brick or ‘arty-farty’ wallpaper to present ‘street-art-for-galleries’, cardboard & fake stencils plus to indispensable spray cans to ‘show’ how Banksy works, hardly any original street work and above all, a ‘street-art-for-the-masses vibe. We visited the expo (helàs!) in Amsterdam and could not get out fast enough. Compare it with eating a cheap pizza in a bad Italian restaurant and thinking that you visited Rome. Got the picture? Don’t get me wrong. I love Banksy and his work. We visited Dismaland (twice), Bristol, Calais & London, to see his work. Because let’s face it, the best place to see a Banksy is still in the street, were it belongs. It’s not easy to find some originals, …

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Banksy’s Dismaland, a fabulous stunt art show. PART 1

The moment I got the news that Banksy was about to open an entertainment park, (one that is not) near his hometown Bristol, I knew that I wanted to be there. With any means. But as expected, we were not alone. From the first second the website was online, he crashed, due to 6 million hits from all over the world. You would crash for less, no? Our planning began, as we decided to take the car, get on the Eurotunnel, a car-train under the channel, to drive another 3 hours to this weird little coast village, called Weston-Super-Mare. (Very cool name by the way.) The quest for tickets started. (A Banksy show at Bristol city museum in 2009 attracted more than 300,000 visitors over 12 weeks, so we knew it was not going to be easy to get in). One week after the opening week, the site was back on line and the hunt kicked off. 3 hours later, we had 4 most desired tickets for an evening session, and the day after, 4 …