Culture

Banksy Versus Bristol Museum: Street Artist's Secret Takeover

by Jarrett Martineau | June 12, 2009 at 01:32 pm

2110 views | 35 Recommendations | 10 comments

Banksy, the ever-secretive yet highly renowned (if infamous) graffiti and street artist, has mounted a large art show in his hometown of Bristol, England — but the exhibition, Banksy Versus Bristol Museum, was completed under the cover of complete secrecy, with the artist in question "nowhere to be seen".

The exhibition, which is on display at Bristol's City Museum & Art Gallery, contains an array of Banksy's paintings and sculpture, but even the museum's director admits that "they couldn’t even tell the council and the whole thing could have been a huge hoax".

This is Banksy's first exhibition in a three-story Edwardian museum.

During the installation, the director said, “We gave the staff a couple of days off and said the museum was closed for filming so no one knew what was going on.”

Banksy Versus Bristol Museum opened Saturday, June 13th and runs until August 31, 2009.

The exhibition is free and open to the public.

His largest collection to date, this exhibit has expanded upon the notions of animal cruelty seen in his last showing in New York City, Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill, and included commentary on human worker’s rights.

The entire exhibit — which fills 3 floors of the museum space — was assembled in just 36 hours.

BBC has a video tour of the exhibit: Banksy's Back

1 See all footage | View Slideshow

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fromama

at 13:40 on June 12th, 2009

quite the story, yeah? did you grab this off of twitter as well?

arte.callejero

at 15:37 on June 12th, 2009

would love to see the exhibition...

arte.callejero has contributed a photo to this story.

jazzyzazzy

at 11:29 on June 13th, 2009

Bansky deserves to be spanked !................For making such an aweful eyesore of a mess of the Place.

generaldecay

at 06:47 on June 14th, 2009

I was just in Bristol this weekend and we were talking about Banksy's exhibition. I'm going to go to see it in a few weeks, when the crowds have calmed down.

Elpats (not verified)

at 08:21 on June 15th, 2009

This show is amazing and if you can make it to Bristol, it's a must see. Banksy's pieces are all over the museum, some are quite hard to find as they are placed along side the museums usual exhibits. If sadly you can't make it, you can see some pictures and thoughts from my visit on the opening day. http://www.bristol-street-art.co.uk/street-art-blog/banksy-versus-bristol-museum

jaybee3

at 16:04 on June 15th, 2009

You even got a photo of me being interviewed :P

theranterandsidekickpics

at 11:30 on June 15th, 2009

we also went on the opening day, which was good for spotting the more obscure items without any spoilers. the queue was long, but mainly because they seemed to control the numbers inside well so it wasn't overcrowded inside. queueing in the sun, also made it feel like we were at some European sightseeing spot, not rainy Bristol!

i've been going to the museum sporadically since i was a toddler and it was particularly amusing to have the odd piece of Banksy in the middle of very familiar displays. i wonder if this is partly why Banksy chose this location?