The piece above was done yesterday morning on Quai de Valmy in Central Paris by Nick Walker. It’s in response to Sarkozy’s decision to ban the burkha. From Nick:
“It’s particularly tense in Paris. They are in between elections and the reaction is expected to be quite strong. The police discovered the piece 30 minutes after it was completed and we don’t expect it to stay up long. After months of wrangling, the government are believed to be only days away from ratifying the ban.”
Yoav Weiss’ project comments on the so-called separation wall in Israel. In his statement on the project’s website, Weiss notes that pieces of the Berlin Wall eventually sold for good money, once the structure lost its policing function. According to Weiss the Israeli wall will surely meet a similar fate and parts of it will soon become similarly coveted souvenirs. He thus offers a special deal for early birds who already want to secure their part of the wall.
In the Israeli context, Weiss’ work is an intervention, artistically, socially and politically. Interpretations of this work are always predicated on the fact that the viewer already knows the Israeli wall and the reality it stands for. It should concern us less that individual viewers in Europe or elsewhere might miss the fact that Weiss is speaking tongue-in-cheek. More importantly, even those European viewers who understand this work as an ironic commentary will engage its references to the less familiar Israeli wall through the lens of the more familiar Berlin Wall. As careful viewers will scan his artwork with the aim of understanding the Israeli wall, its implications, and political meaning, they will inevitably do so through the prism of what they know about the Berlin Wall. Weiss’ work will to a large degree have an educational function to those unfamiliar with the history of the Israeli wall.
Banksy has been on holiday and he’s taken his spray can with him … to the Palestinian side of Israel’s separation wall. This is how Banksy bombed the West Bank, Enjoy!
According to Wikipedia Banksy is “the pseudonym of a prolific British graffiti artist whose identity is still unknown.” Simon Hattenstone from Guardian Unlimited is one of the very few people to have interviewed him face-to-face. Hattenstone describes him as “a 28 year old male who showed up wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a silver tooth, silver chain, and one silver earring”. In the same interview, Banksy revealed that his parents think their son is a painter and decorator.
We could not stop ourselves from browsing threw every page and every picture in this artists’ website (wait a few more lines, the link is at the bottom as usual) and yes, we even clicked the link the SHOP, just to find out that as he put it:
“Banksy does not produce greeting cards or print photo-canvases or paint commissions or sell freshly baked bagels. Please take anything from this site and make your own.”
You have got to love him for that
Banksy’s images of his graffiti art do not need any translation. See for yourselves:
3 sculptures
Flower Chucker (Genin?)
Riot Coppers
Make way, here comes the... Donut!
Monkey Parliament (could have been easily mistaken for any other government)
ArtPolitica is a collaborative blog about political art. Our aim is to expose contemporary works of art which express the artists' political and/or social stance and to evoke public discussions revolving their ideas.
