Street Art

My parents used to take me and my brother to museums that didn’t really interest me at the age of seven. When I was ten, I once was tired and sat down on a chair that apparently was one of the exibition items. In the years that followed, I started to appreciate modern art, due to my parents enthousiasm and pressure, and slowly developped my own taste, that started with Hundertwasser and Klimt, like all teen girls.
A couple of years ago, I stopped forcing myself to first visit a museum when I visited a new city. I prefer to stroll around, talking to people and drinking coffee in small coffeeshops that you can only find accidentally.
The more I look, the more I see small pieces of art, hidden in the city. I’m not talking about the statues on squares or on roundabouts, I’m talking about drawings and tags on walls, on the sidewalk, on electricity boxes. During highschool, I saw the sayings of Loesje that would put life in perspective, nowadays, Laser 3.14 gets to me with his beautiful sayings.
I have to admit that I only recently got introduced to the world of Banksy. Luckily, just in time to know I had to see his movie, Exit through the giftshop. A film that starts like a story of playfull guys that think of innovative ways to spread their message. Men who live in the night, who use darkness to reach out to the plebs and try to break through the routine of every day life with unexpected thoughts. Halfway through, the film takes a turn and shows how all art can be commercialized. As a viewer, you start to doubt: is this about art or about money? Or are they making art of making money? Its not only the buyers of the mass produced and very expensive art that is being fooled, even in the theatre, you start to feel uncomfortable. How seriously are they taking their audience?
Afterwards, I realised that I too had fallen for a name, a constructed identity. Of a man who nevertheless, makes beautifull things. Including this film.
Apart from Banksy, Space Invader and the other street artist that are being mentioned in this film, there are so many more. Their work is litteraly on the street. You just have to open your eyes to see it and be inspired!