After the success of the previous exhibition stages, in Mestre and Monza, the traveling exhibition of Banksy was inaugurated at the GAM – Modern Art Gallery in Catania, produced and organized by MetaMorfosi Eventi in collaboration with Demetra, sponsored by the Municipality of Catania and curated by the art historian Sabina De Gregori. Already in the choice of the title, “Banksy lands in Catania”, the verb “land” sounds strong, more connected to the news of migrants than to street art actions, but in fact the artist – or whoever he is since we do not know his face or his real entity – has always focused his attention on what remains on the margins of our contemporaneity.
Banksy, “Season’s greetings”, 2018, spray paint on brick wall, Brentwood (UK), Brandler Galleries, ph. courtesy MetaMorfosi Eventi
Banksy, the deified artist, originating more from the silenced and censored words of the sidewalks of the world, gives new life to the bricks of urban walls, managing to activate in his observers a strong sense of humor: that Pirandellian “feeling of the opposite” on very current issues, such as social inequalities, pollution, wars. Three of his walls arrived in Catania thanks to an impressive and complex organization of transport and customs authorizations, given their tons of weight. «These walls represent the most important part of the exhibition, which stands out from the others on Banksy because the predominant thought was to add value to the critical path, to all the work of “sacralization” carried out by the public and by the art system itself. I wanted his walls because, decontextualized from the street, they acquire more power in a museum. Today Banksy is considered a divinity even though his works derive from a principle of street art» declared the curator De Gregori.
Banksy, “Robot/ Computer Boy”, 2010, spray paint on brick wall, Brentwood (UK), Brandler Galleries, ph. courtesy MetaMorfosi Eventi
The first of the three original works, rained down like “meteorites” in a place they have nothing to do with, is “Season’s Greetings”, a large wall painted by Banksy in 2018, in Port Talbot, Wales, installed in the exhibition area of the Centro Sicilia shopping center with the patronage of the Municipality of Misterbianco. On this wall, a young boy is portrayed with his arms wide open and his tongue sticking out of his mouth with the attitude of someone who is savoring the snowflakes falling from the sky. Flakes that, however, turning the corner, are remains of ash rising from a burning garbage can. A message of denunciation of the pollution perpetuated to the detriment of the planet with the total indifference of the systems of power.
Banksy, “Heart Boy”, 2009, spray paint on brick wall, Brentwood (UK), Brandler Galleries; “Girl with balloon”, 2004-2005, silkscreen on paper, London (UK), Emilia and Alessandro private collection, ph. courtesy MetaMorfosi Eventi
The second wall on display is “Heart Boy”, created in 2009 on a building in Goswell Road in Islington, near King’s Cross Station in London, on whose bricks a young boy has once again been depicted, fresh from drawing a pink heart on other urban bricks, with dripping paint. In this way, Banksy wants to draw attention to the freedom to overturn gender stereotypes. The third, exhibited at the GAM, is “Robot/Computer” and refers to a stencil that appeared on the outside wall of the Grosvenor Hotel in Belgrave Road, Torquay, in 2010. Here too the image of a child, this time kneeling with a cardboard robot on his head: he has just finished drawing another robot larger than himself, whose head coincides with the air vent that belonged to the hotel’s kitchen. Some have seen in this wall a self-referential message, in which Banksy is symbolically seen as a child with his face covered. Certainly, the question of hidden identity is closely related to the artist, but it is also a current and complex theme in the world of social media, media and the web in general.
Banksy, “No Ball Games”, 2009, silkscreen on paper, private collection, ph. courtesy MetaMorfosi Eventi
Although his face is unknown, the images of his works travel around the world with incredible speed and are humorous visions with which he intends to bring out our dissent, trying to shake our opinion on the most disparate themes related to war, food, peace, religion. On display in Catania, standing in front of the long section of his silkscreen prints and covers, such as the well-known and iconic “Girl with balloon” makes the observer perceive that he/she is part of that world that the artist wants to overturn thought itself and make us follow, perhaps, the direction of that balloon. The exhibition itinerary also includes the first works with his recognizable mice and the famous monkeys, both replicated in different situations and, at times, caricatures of humans themselves. The powerful words stand out, entrusted to the sad monkey that appears in “Laugh Now”, a 2003 silkscreen on paper, wearing a sign that reads: «Now you laugh, but one day we will be in charge», a reference to the incorrectness and deception of politics during the war in Iraq. From the exhibition, therefore, emerge not only the historical and political view of our time from a “Banksy” point of view, but the stages of a process of museum sacralization of an artist who, despite being of unknown identity, is already a living myth, assumed to be a symbolic “Holy Grail” of contemporary art.
Info:
Banksy lands in Catania
From July 13 to October 2024
GAM – Galleria Arte Moderna
Exhibition produced by MetaMorfosi Eventi and Demetra
with the patronage of the Municipality of Catania
Via Castello Ursino 32, Catania
Area Espositiva Centro Sicilia
SP-54 Misterbianco – Centro Commerciale
Through art she feels the need to get closer to nature, deciding to create an artistic residence on Etna as a “refuge for contemporary art” for artists and scholars. Thus was born Nake artistic residence. She won the Responsible Etna Award 2015. In 2017, she was invited to the Sala Zuccari, Senate of the Republic, as an art critic. She writes for Italian and foreign artists. Curator of the first Museum of Contemporary Art of Etna and of the “Contemporary Etna” project.
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