Gosh, lotta Banksy press of late throughout Melbourne. What with city councillors inadvertently painting over a Banksy rat in Hosier Lane… oh the horror! Those greedy fucks are lamenting a lost financial windfall.
So the Melbourne media has been going ga-ga over Banksy works scattered throughout our fine city. So much so, I received an email from one publication asking for a brief interview with me over the article I wrote for Desktop… now who died and made me the Banksy expert?
Nonetheless, I politely declined.
Having said that, whilst the City Of Melbourne gets its collective knickers in knot, here’s some real Banksy info…
Exit Through The Gift Shop is finally getting an Australian release…
The ultra-offical blurb reads something like this:
As a personal introduction, Banksy’s penned a letter for the world premiere of his debut feature film at Sundance went a little something like this….. “Ladies and gentlemen, and publicists: Trying to make a movie which truly conveys the raw thrill and expressive power of art is very difficult. So we haven’t bothered. Instead, this is simply an everyday tale of life, longing, and mindless vandalism. Everything you are about to see is true, especially the bit where we all lie. Thanks for coming, please don’t give away the ending on Twitter. And please, don’t try copying any of this stuff at home, wait until you get to work.”
And so it goes that the artist, political commentator and social prankster known as Banksy makes his foray into cinema by doing exactly what he does best, warping reality into something much more fun! In this, ‘the world’s first street art disaster movie’, Banksy becomes the prize catch of Thierry Guetta, a French shop-keep turned videographer who becomes obsessed with finding and filming the elusive painter. Also featuring the likes of Shephard Fairey (Obey), Space Invader and a slew of street art luminaries, Exit Through the Gift Shop totally delivers – a funny, raucous (and cautionary) tale on art, ambition and the cult of celebrity.
Despite the city’s unconditional cultural embrace of street art, Banksy’s work has had a somewhat chequered past in Melbourne – with his ‘Little Diver’ being maliciously vandalised, then quietly resurrected again as a replica at an unknown date in April 2010. Most recently, Banksy’s infamous ‘parachuting rat’ in Hosier Lane was accidentally rubbed out by a graffiti clean-up crew. Again, replicas are beginning to spring up all over the city. As of Wednesday 28th April, the Lord Mayor Robert Doyle has extended an open invitation for Banksy to return to Melbourne and has also floated the option of commissioning a new work.
Exit Through the Gift Shop has premiered in both Sundance and Berlin film festivals and has opened to acclaim in the U.K. and the U.S.
Exit Through the Gift Shop is on limited release in cinemas across Australia from June 3.
- Melbourne – June 3– 18 – ACMI Federation Square / 03 8663 2583 / acmi.net.au
- Sydney – June 2–14 – Sydney Film Festival / 02 9690 5390 / sff.org.au
- Brisbane – June 4–14 – Tribal Theatre, George Street / 07 3211 5880 / tribaltheatre.com.au
- Adelaide – June 4–14 – Mercury Cinema / 08 8410 1934 / mercurycinema.org.au
- Perth – June 10-23 – Luna Leederville / 08 9444 4056 / lunapalace.com.au
- Canberra – June 11-14 – National Gallery of Australia / 02 6240 6411 / nga.gov.au
Continue reading ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop – A Film By Banksy’
