CULTURE, ART & LITERATURE A Visual Protest: the World of Banksy WARM-UP SPEAKING Rispondi alle domande. 1. What is graffiti (or writing)? 2. Have you ever seen any graffiti in your town? 3. Do you think writing graffiti is a crime? Why? 35 Who is Banksy? Nobody knows! Banksy is everywhere and nowhere. One morning you wake up and on the wall across the street you see some amazing graffiti and you know it s his. What we know about him is what he gives us: powerful messages for the world. The beginning of his career Banksy first got noticed for spray-painting trains and walls in Bristol during the early 1990s. Street art and graffiti can be considered criminal damage, so in the beginning people thought he remained anonymous to keep out of trouble , but he still is anonymous! He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene. By 2000 he had turned to the stencilling technique, which uses stencils made of cardboard , to create images and texts that are easily and quickly reproduced on surfaces and then coloured by spray or roll-on paint. Banksy s messages Banksy s stencils convey striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalism or anti-establishment . Subjects include rats, monkeys, policemen, soldiers and children. He uses his art to provoke and shock, to break rules and voice his disappointment at certain aspects of society or decisions made by world leaders. His most popular works Girl with a Balloon is made of two simple shapes with a short, now faded statement: There is always hope . Banksy seems to say that when everything appears to be black and white, there is always some hope. The mural was created in London in 2002 on a wall under Waterloo Bridge. Like all of Banksy s works, even this was reproduced on canvas and was sold at an auction of London Sotheby s in October 2018 for 6 million euros, however it suddenly and mysteriously shredded to pieces seconds after it was sold. Ten minutes later, the semi-destroyed canvas was re-sold for 25 million euros! Flower Thrower or Love is in the Air was originally created in 2003 in response to the construction of the West Bank wall in Bethlehem. The large mural was stencilled on the wall that separates Palestine from Israel. It shows a militant young man throwing a bunch of flowers instead of a molotov. It is now a universal message of love as opposed to war. GLOSSARY auction: asta bunch: mazzo canvas: tela cardboard: cartone to convey: trasmettere establishment: ordine costituito 76 to fade: sbiadire roll-on: rullo to shred: fare a brandelli striking: impressionante to throw: lanciare trouble: guaio