I went to see the new Banksy film, Exit Through The Gift Shop with a few friends last night, including Sean. It is a really interesting film that turns art/street art on it’s head and ends in a very different place than expected — so of course, we had to discuss afterwards over a  PRR (or two). I wanted to post about it today but what having trouble solidifying my thoughts when I noticed that Sean wrote a great little post on his Blog Deamplified. So Vola, I am including his post post below and telling you to go see it. Also Mr Brainwash has a show that is up in NYC until the end of March, so go see the film and then go see the show and then tell me what you think. Popular belief is that Banksy IS duping us all as Mr Brainwash…

::::::Sean’s Post::::::
I saw Exit Through The Gift Shop tonight and my first impression is that it was a good film, though maybe not for the same reasons as the positive reviews I’ve read so far. As hinted in the trailer, much of the film focuses on the documentary film maker Thierry Guetta, following the history of his friendship with (and footage of) street arts’ celebrities and culminating with his largely successful show in LA as Mr. Brainwash.

I went to the film without much information about it, but expecting a twist. As everything we’ve ever seen from Banksy has been a prank of some sort, I had doubts he was simply releasing a straightforward documentary about street art. The twist – spoiler, if you want (ie. stop reading here if you want to see the film without any biased views) – I believe, is the fabrication of Mr. Brainwash and his show Life is Beautiful, which made over $1 million in art sales. If Guetta’s street artist persona was for real, would street art’s all-stars have lent so much help and exposure to someone who merely regurgitates predictable street art styles to be sold to LA’s clueless collectors? More likely, it was a well-played and profitable prank by Banksy – turning Thierry Guetta into a Sacha Baron Cohen of the street art scene.

Going beyond the tired old question of “Is it art?” I wonder, “Does it matter?” Even if the entire show was a prank, would the value of the pieces that were bought go down or up?

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