Disseny Hub Barcelona opens its doors to the exhibition “BANKSY. The Art of Protest”, the great international exhibition of original works from private collections.
The exhibition on the controversial British artist whose identity remains unknown arrives in Barcelona. Banksy has revolutionized contemporary art through universally recognised, imitated and revered work that defies the system and has already made him a mythical figure of our time.
“BANKSY. The Art of Protest”, which to date has received more than 1 million visits on its world tour, is conceived as an immersion in the mysterious universe of one of the most influential creators of recent decades. The exhibition offers an unprecedented journey through nearly a hundred original works on loan exclusively from international private collections, some of which will see the light of day before the general public for the first time in this exhibition in Barcelona.
The set of works by Banksy exhibited at Disseny Hub Barcelona address universal issues of great social interest that encourage reflection such as globalization, consumerism, wars, the power of politics and religion, the class struggle or the climate crisis through pieces in many formats: oil, acrylic or spray on canvas and wood, limited edition serigraphs, stencils on metal or concrete, sculptures, installations, videos and photographs. The exhibition also houses a new and spectacular immersive audiovisual space that proposes a multisensory journey through Banksy’s artistic career.
The sample “BANKSY. The Art of Protest” has a free audio guide for smartphones, available in Catalan, Spanish and English, which enriches the visitor’s experience by providing extensive information on the artist and on each of the works on display. The content of this audio guide has been created after 2 years of research on Banksy and his work.
Among the most recognized works on display are the original serigraph from the “Girl with a balloon” series, similar to the one destroyed by the artist himself in an unprecedented action at Sotheby’s auction house in London, just now three years ago. It also highlights “Pink Trap” on canvas, a piece of graffiti found on the wall of a house in Banksy’s hometown of Bristol. Also the interesting “Christ with shopping bags”, a satire on the distortion of the true meaning of Christmas, released in 2004 with an edition of 82 copies and that, despite becoming a cult image, has never become to print or reproduce. Or “Girl with an umbrella”, which appeared for the first time in 2005 in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, one of his most moving images, in which a girl gets wet even under an umbrella, alluding to the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina. And “Love is in the air”, one of Banksy’s most recognizable works in which a protester throws a bouquet of flowers instead of a Molotov cocktail and which could have the fatalistic reading that protest against capitalism or military regimes it is as useless as throwing flowers against a wall.
Official page of the exhibition: www.banksyexhibition.es
Instagram: @banksybarcelona
Facebook: @banksybarcelona