Underground Melbourne

A flying visit for the Banksy street-art film ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’.  Especially in the light of MCC’s recent daft erasing of one of our last public Banksy pieces, this is as close as many fans will get to his work for a while. The film has shown across the world in a number of exotic locations, with the premiere in London being shown in an underground disused bunker.  ACMI, although far more normalised a venue, has screens and sound which should do the film justice.  See it if you can!

More information from ACMI below:

Street art goes celluloid

Banksy keeps to the shadows

What exactly are we looking at here?

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a Banksy film – Bansky being the elusive street artist who has tattooed walls from London to Hosier Lane, marking up public space with his satirical stencils and blurring the line between vandalism and invaluable cultural commentary. He has spray-painted British coppers embracing and rats under parachutes; he has written sky-high messages for downtrodden commuters; he has glued idyllic pictures to the West Bank barrier. No doubt about it, the man is a legend, and no less for his anonymity than his art. In almost twenty years of street art activism, Banksy’s true identity has remained a mystery (a much easier way to break the law). He has carefully guarded his personal particulars while encouraging speculation with bold, highly visible gestures, like hanging his own work in the Louvre and distributing counterfeit bank notes featuring Princess Diana instead of Queen Elizabeth (issued by the ‘Banksy of England’). As his stunts have gotten bigger, the evasive Banksy has become more and more fascinating, and Exit Through the Gift Shop could be his biggest stunt yet. It’s a film by Banksy, but it’s not really about Banksy. It’s about a crazy guy called Thierry Guetta, who became obsessed with Banksy. And it’s about the art world, which became obsessed with Thierry Guetta. The thing is, some people think Banksy IS Thierry Guetta. In which case, Exit Through the Gift Shop really is a film about Banksy. This is pure speculation, but he is one crafty mother duckster. I wouldn’t put it past him.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is screening exclusively at ACMI from Thursday 3 to Friday 18 June. Click here for session times.