Podcasts about thierry guetta

Debora Medici-Guetta has inspired me since the day I met her. I could feel her intense passion for her work, her support of women, and for being someone not afraid to talk about her journey in life. So won't you please welcome her to our show this incredibly talented photographer & photojournalist, graphic artist, and documentary filmmaker. Debora was born in Rome, and the first time she landed in Los Angeles, she felt at home among other creatives free to express their art unfiltered. She now divides her time between here and Italy. Debora took time off, like many women, to focus on family. Her husband is famed artist #MrBrainwash, aka Thierry Guetta, and that alone is a full time job managing that level of notoriety. But a decade ago, Debora decided to get back into the game and began the intuitive process of reframing who she was, one image at a time. A return to making art meant embarking, in Debora's words, on “a big, long, introspective journey.” After several years refining her technique and honing her perspective, she would reveal a series of photographs aptly titled, “Out of The Shadow,” a haunting body of images that reflected Debora's desire to shed the trappings of the past and position herself as an artist in the world. She followed this exhibition with “Landed”, a series of collages that capture the frenetic and freeing energy of the world's great urban centers. As her vision grew, so did Debora's interests, so she started working with, and eventually joined, the board of directors for We Do It Together (WDIT), a nonprofit that produces films, documentaries, TV, and new media uniquely dedicated to the empowerment of women. Recently, for International Women's Day, the group launched “One of Us,” a documentary for which Debora served as honorary set photographer. The film, sponsored by Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles, follows four Italian women who are challenging gender bias and discrimination in their fields of work. We will talk with Debora about her incredibly successful career, and how she encourages women to discover who they are. She says her work “prioritizes emotions over mere moments,” and we'll talk with her about that, in addition to her life, and of course living with #MrBrainwash himself. Lots to ask there. Please join my interview with Deborah Medici-Guetta on all video and audio platforms of #DeborahKobyltLIVE, #LittleItalyPodcast, & #LittleItalyOfLAPodcast. I'm your host, #DeborahZaraKobylt, and it's my pleasure to have you with us.

Wir sprechen über die "Prankumentary" und den ultimativen Street-Art-Film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" von Banksy aus dem Jahr 2010. Der Legende nach eigentlich als Dokumentation des Exzentrikers Thierry Guetta geplant, kapert Banksy den Film, der eigentlich von ihm handeln sollte, und macht ihn zu einem bizarren Meta-Film über die Urban Art Szene, die Kulturindustrie und das Wechselspiel von Kunstproduktion und -Rezeption. Auch wenn wir, was die Qualität des Films betrifft, der gleichen Meinung sind, so gibt es doch einiges zu diskutieren. Wie gut ist die Kunst des eigentlichen Protagonisten dieses Films, Thierry Guetta? Wer verarscht hier wen, und inwiefern wird der Urban Art Kulturbetrieb gefeiert oder veralbert? Passend zum Thema des vermeintlichen Dokumentarfilms hauen wir bei unseren Top 3 Listen ausnahmsweise mal keine Filme raus, sondern diskutieren über unsere Geheimtipps der besten Künstler*Innen jüngster Zeit.

Exit Through the Giftshop is a documentary on the commodification of street art directed by Banksy but placing Thierry Guetta, a Bansky acolyte who was inspired to enter the art world by Banksy, as the central figure through which to explore its themes. The podcast discusses Guetta's journey, and questions Banksy's perspective and attitude towards Guetta, whilst questioning whether the figure of Guetta is real or not. Is he just a Banksy invention, a construct through which to raise questions? Does it matter? Aren't all films constructs? The film is discussed as a documentary and compared to a range of works from Welles F for Fake to reality television. A film enriched by being open to the many interpretations the discussion in the podcast brings up.

In our return from our hiatus, Matt and Galen enter the world of street art with the 2010 documentary Ext through the Gift Shop. Keywords: Breakdancing Cat, Up Yours, Kid Named Finger, Xbox Live, Thierry Guetta, Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Selling out, Auteur theory, Art is a Joke

0:00 Intro3:08 Exit Through the Gift Shop39:22 Coldplay

Graffiti is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. It dates back to the Roman Empire, older to ancient Greece, and more advanced ancient Egypt. It's like hunting since it's an act that can land anywhere on the spectrum of honorable to deplorable. With game trophy hunting of endangered species being vandalism while sustenance hunting which honors the animal being natural, graffiti that's not art is contractive, such as gang signs that make the surface it's made on worse, while graffiti that's art can make the surface it's made on better.Outside of commercial graffiti, where artists are hired to paint a billboard on the side of a high rise per se, the majority of this action outside of those rare occurrences, involves the graffitist self creating a canvas in public view without permission. So most graffitists through time have chosen to protect their identities through anonymity and/or to avoid prosecution from the state.Ask anyone on a street about graffiti, especially the artistic type, and they will surely mention one nom de plum - Banksy. A nearly household name who's a pseudonymous England-based street artist who's become one of the world's most notorious known for his political art. Anonymity, which has been the superhero trait for many authentic occultists through time, has also worked to Banksy's personal advantage. For both reasons he planned and didn't plan for. As he said in the 2010 documentary film focused around him, Exit Through The Gift Shop, “What I do is in sort of a legal grey area”, thus he takes his privacy very seriously. It also of course gives him more of a safety blanket. And allure. While not making his works so much about his ego, but more the art works themselves. At least in theory. With Banksy in the past saying “fame is a grotesque sole destroying vulgarity for the egomaniacal, narcissists who are, of course, staggeringly insecure”. Having no desire for fame is a very soul mature and sophisticated trait. Yet every once in a blue moon, those who feel that way still acquire it. Or perhaps it acquires them.To highlight how incredibly talented Banksy is, The film Exit Through The Gift Shop started out being made in the early 2000's by a Los Angeles-based French shopkeeper Thierry Guetta, whose obsession with street art leads him to attempt to make a documentary about the subject. Notice how I said attempt because the halls of the akashic records are full of struggling filmmakers who want to or try to make a documentary and never finish one. This is because Guetta is what we call a shooter. Which is just a dude with a camera who shoots stuff, without really any editing skill and even less narrative writing skill. He actually connected up with Banksy and gets exclusive access to film him, but turns out to be such a crap filmmaker that Banksy actually ends up taking over the project and steering the creative with the many thousands of hours and years of footage Guetta had shot. The film, after being assembled into something with a narrative story by Banksy, shows how Thierry Guetta has become Mr. Brainwash, now one of the most provocative and famous figures in the contemporary world of street art, and also contains exclusive interviews and footage of Banksy, Invader, Shepard Fairey, and many other graffiti artists. So for never having taken on this moving medium, and perhaps being the one and only time he does so in feature length. He did a quite good job putting it together into an enjoyable to watch doc. Which is not an easy task.Banksy's primary focus, street art, has typically contained common motifs of monkeys, apes, rats, children, elderly, police, and soldiers with recurrent critiques of societal operating problems such as hypocrisy, despair, absurdity, poverty, greed, alienation, and off balance profiteering - of which there's certainly no shortage of in the world. His work could be said to be anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-authoritarian, anti-fascist, and even critical of capitalism while also being somewhat anarchistic and nihilistic. All with twists of humor and relevance. Because he is not only a brilliant graffitist, multi medium artist, activist, not to mention adding filmmaker to that resume - Unlike many lukewarm artists, Banksy's work stands out from the hoards because it actually has real things to say and we very much personally resonate with him and his creative outputs.Since our personal main form of documentary still image work is street photography, we'll highlight here that the vast majority of those who have ever seen a piece of Banksy art have done it through the photographs taken of it, rather than the physical work itself. Banksy's stencil spray work, an artform which allows one who prefers to sneak around in the shadows, and usually under cover of night, to get in and out very quickly, has a quite distinct (individualized, hint, hint) visual style. So much to the point where you know it when you see it. But the only real way to absolutely confirm a work is genuinely his, is when Banksy shares a street photo or video on the internet. As confirmation a work is his, you if you will. Some of the most compelling street shots have a focal point of someone or something interacting or in a scene, (in situ), with a sign, or storefront, or work of art. We've personally taken photos inside art galleries that entail a painting and people's reaction to the painting, or in frame in front of the painting, which then became a meta expression of the artwork, being another artwork created with an artwork contained within. Some of the most amazing street art becomes even more amplified when photographed and that photograph has someone or something accentuating or interacting with the artwork. For example, a Banksy painting on a wall of rats in a beach chair was intentionally done on a concrete wall against a sandy beach. So the floor of sand was intended to be part of the artwork. Or a small memorial of the World Trade Center is placed right at a location with a crack in the wall running vertically down one of the towers so that a flower can be placed inside of it. Banksy does oftentimes include a secondary focus to a piece which may be a life sized person who is then looking at the focal point of the art. But oftentimes these real life 3D additions make what would otherwise be a 2D piece of art into more of a full volume, which when then captured photographically, becomes the largest expression of what the piece of art could hope to be. So the art becomes as much about the photography of it than the piece itself.It's known that Banksy is for sure a male, originally from Bristol, England, and there are debates about his real identity. At the time of this writing, there's actually significant proof of his birth corporate fiction name but we'll touch on that another time. There's also proof that he may operate as himself with another person or multiple other people. Radiating out from Bristol, down to London, his work has been thrown up across parts of Europe, the United States, and more specifically in locations such as Chiapas Mexico - an area known fort the indigenous Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and also in Palestine, hitting the Palistinean side of the aprprtide states of Israel's controversial and ironically enough, holocaust style West Bank barrier.Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy of vandalism vs. art. Or another way to frame it is brandalism vs vandalism - brandalism being the sanctioning of corporate culture plastering their message and sigeles (another form of vandalism) everywhere in public space. No different than graffiti, only sanctioned because they've paid for it. The book Seven Years With Banksy says “By prescient I mean that what you see on a wall boldly painted by someone often projects into the future; it's powerful and effective – and the status quo doesn't like it. They never have and they never will, because they can't control it. But if you can pay through the nose for a billboard, you can say virtually anything you like. And as citizens we all have to swallow the messages of envy and greed from our ‘friendly' corporations because they have created laws saying that kind of indoctrination is OK. It's been paid for. And every graffiti artist, understands that. Adverts are as far from the truth as it is possible to get. They represent the utopia that you must pay for as you slope through your trashy end of town without a penny to scratch your arse with. But to go out there in the dead of night when even the dogs are asleep and to put up on a wall a picture of the way you, as a free citizen, see this whole setup is to have the courage of your convictions so the general public can witness how you see it, for free. And we all know graffiti can be exquisitely poignant and beautiful, more than any advertiser can co-opt or come up with. As long as there are advertising billboards there will be graffiti and there is no contest as to which is the more creative and true.”Supporters of public art very much endorse Banksy's work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art over vandalism and some government councils, such as Bristol, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be solely vandalism so it's been removed by the state or by other taggers. This is very common behavior for graffitists, who constantly paint over one another's works. Jocking for the top stop position of being seen and not covered up.For we must also never forget, the matrix is a cultural overlay on top of nature, which only allows and encourages lukewarm creativity to a certain point. And anything beyond that is strictly prohibited for being too truthful. For truly free expression and speech are the cornerstones of any real authentic democracy. Not pho, somewhat pretending to be democracies that are really, corporatocracy, plutocracies, or kleptocracies. So forms of real journalism and art are always swimming upstream from these systems. And one who works inside this system only can become an exception when they become so well known - Even though they may still highlight the subversive inversion to the powers of the corportized state. Now that Banksy's works are considered so valuable, he's almost become somewhat protected by that system. For Capitalism even finds a place for its enemies when they make it money. And the larger and more well known Banksy's art gets, the more he trolls the art world, the more both are exploited. For now everything he touches somewhat becomes gold monetarily. With literally entire sections of walls he tags removed soon after they go up. Knowing this, he often keeps his work to more publicly owned buildings or walls and only hits easily removable surfaces if he intentionally intends to use a work of his as a donation to the place. Such as leaving a stencil on an exterior door of a youth club that's struggling financially so they gain the revenue from selling the work. Or donating an artwork honoring health care workers who've been redlind during the covid pandemic.But as a whole, he hates the commodification and commercialization of art - Often trolling it. Being quoted as saying “The art world (meaning combining art with money) is the biggest joke,” “It's a rest home of the over privileged, the pretentious, and the weak. Knowing it doesn't care as much about the aesthetics let alone the messages of what the art is saying, which was proved in the case of an occurrence of Banksy having an old timer set up a fold up table in New York city for one day of his artwork. Which is perceived as fake with canvases selling for only $60 when they're worth in excess of $200,000, very few people bought them on the day. For the business art world cares exclusively about an artist's work's perceived high value and the standing of the artist themselves. Not the quality of the work. This was something we once personally experienced when showing our street photography to a Leica gallery manager. They wanted to know all about us and our status and standing in the photographer world, rather than the quality of the photography itself. Banksy himself has said Graffiti art has a hard enough time as it is, without hedge fund managers wanting to hang it on their walls.Another example of this sliminess was a blockchain company, (and there a lot of good things about blockchain) bought a $95,000 Banksy artwork, burned it and broadcast it live on the anti socials — all part of a process of turning the work into a virtual asset called a non-fungible token, or NFT - of which there are some good things, and some bad things as well. The company behind the stunt acquired the print in a New York gallery, then destroyed it. Moments later, they uploaded the digital representation of the art using blockchain technology on a NFT selling site. Hopefully they didn't really destroy it but instead a copy and it was just a marketing stunt for the NFT. But, whether real or staged, their mindset was that they were transferring the physical value of art by removing the physical piece from existence. So they bought the physical art piece just to destroy it. The problem here is they obviously don't give a shit about the artwork itself, they set fire to it.Prior to this, Banksy did probably the most known “high class negging” stunt against the art selling world in the now famous occurrence of his “Girl with Balloon” painting which was designed to self district after being remote triggered the moment after being sold at auction for $1.4 million dollars. With a built in shredder inside the frame being activated, with initial tests of the self shredding frame having ripped up the work successfully in trial runs, but on the actual day, only functioning to about half way, leaving the piece mostly intact. Sure it's a bit questionable to not think that Sotheby's, the world's largest art broker who caters to the ultra rich, couldn't have somehow been aware of the stunt prior to it occurring. Not taking the time to do a thorough inspection on the very unusually thick frame the artwork was in. But, who knows.Anything truly novel art will be a bid disconcerting and unsettling to the more conservative minded. It will rise up and break through multiple glass ceilings and the more it punches through, the more it will be discouraged. Yet, real leading edge creativity will be fiercely individualistic, challenge the status quo, not to mention be paradigm destroying. For every institution Banksy criticizes for suffering from extreme pretentious un-creative disease loves his artwork even more - because it's valuable to them monetarily. Which is the only language they know. And after the occurrence used it to their commercial advantage. The stunt gained not only massive attraction online but then also followed up by a press release from them, stating that Banksy was actually the first artist to create a final work of art live at auction. Not to mention the fact that the stunt made the painting more famous and thus valuable.Banksy's take on the semi successful stunt was that the urge to destroy is also creative. Which is also a Picasso quote. This has been seen many times with performance art or public stunt art, much of which also happens on the street and harkens back to the monks destroying their sand mandalas to highlight the ephemeral nature of life and reincarnations.After another work from Banksy, the ‘Devolved Parliament' painting, was sold, Banksy posted a quote from art critic Robert Hughes: “Art should make us feel more clearly and more intelligently. It should give us coherent sensations that we otherwise would not have had. But the price of a work of art is now part of its function, its new job is to sit on the wall and get more expensive. “Instead of being the common property of humankind the way many books are, art becomes the particular property of somebody who can afford it. Suppose that every worthwhile book in the world cost $1 million – imagine what a catastrophic effect on culture that would have.”We admire Banksy so much. Not just for his messaging, but consistency with his values over the years. Making folks think. Engaging them in discussion. Speaking through his art. High art, or art movements, with purpose and thus impact, are often started and created on the street - where everyone, not just those who can buy it, have access. No matter how known Banksy is, his work will have major elements that continue right where they started, perhaps on your soggy neighborhood street corner. He's not full of fake subversion and rebellion, and although he does a stunt or two, his main medium shows no sign of degrading. Since popularity does not equate to value, it's encouraging to see over the years, and he has been active for many years now, it's encouraging to see that although money and some ego of his name, sure now do apply, his free expression and continued creativity are leading edge. Culture jamming is a protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, especially including advertising. It constantly works towards "exposing the methods of domination" of mass society. And Banksy has long shown that he is a master of it.———An Infinite Path podcast official URL http://www.aninfinitepath.comSpotify | iTunes | Overcast FM | Stitcher | Player FMElevate yourself with a membership to nilesheckman.com, purchasing our current extended episode archive or essay volumes, or sharing a proactive review on iTunes. Niles' work can be found elsewhere on YouTube, Vimeo, and Substack.Here's our affiliate link for Jambo Superfoods as well.

Today Spencer Chaplin talks to street artist Thierry Guetta who is also know as Mr. Brainwash. They talk about his film 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' and be unearthing whether or not Banksy created Mr. Brainwash, as well as understanding why Mr. Brainwash uses Charlie Chaplin in his art. 

“O Mundo de Banksy” é o tema da exposição em cartaz no espaço Lafayette-Druot, em Paris, até dezembro. Reproduções gigantes das obras do enigmático artista se espalham por mais de mil metros quadrados no interior de uma galeria privada no centro da capital francesa. A verdadeira identidade de Banksy é um mistério. O estilo de spray sobre moldes vazados, o estêncil, é sua marca registrada. As imagens misturam ousadia, transgressão, crítica à sociedade de consumo, defesa de refugiados, solidariedade com vítimas de perseguições e catástrofes. Banksy brinca e critica ao mesmo tempo. As obras surgem de repente, em lugares estratégicos. Como uma menina chorando, na porta do Bataclan, em Paris, após os atentados de 15 de novembro de 2015, ou mais recentemente, um rato espirrando nas janelas de vagões de metrô em Londres, uma referência à pandemia. A mostra em Paris se apropria de dezenas de imagens icônicas em meio a uma cenografia que tenta reencenar os locais onde o artista deixou rastros. “O local escolhido, no caso da street art, é muito importante, principalmente no caso de Banksy”, diz Aziz Vardar, diretor do espaço parisiense. “Se você prestar atenção nos trabalhos que ele fez nos Estados Unidos, trata-se de uma denúncia sobre o consumo desenfreado. Em Belém, na Palestina, ele critica o muro. Tem a garota na porta do Bataclan. Se não fosse nesse lugar exato, o efeito seria dez vezes menor”, acrescenta Vardar. “Ampliamos as imagens, que foram inseridas num contexto realístico. A relação com a obra de Banksy fica dessa maneira mais próxima. Para se viver e sentir o que é a arte urbana é mais interessante ver as imagens aumentadas”, explica Vardar. “Na arte urbana, a técnica é simples. O importante não é quem segura o molde na parede ou aperta o spray, o resultado é que conta”, acrescenta. A exposição dá uma ideia da versatilidade e produtividade de Banksy, um dos pioneiros da street art, mas levanta críticas por causa do preço da entrada --14 euros – para se ver cópias. Há quem ataque dizendo que isso vai justamente contra os propósitos de acessibilidade da arte urbana. O site independente de jornalismo Mediapart foi mais longe e disse se tratar de “uma pseudo exposição de supostas obras de Banksy que acaba corrompendo o espírito público, prostituindo a arte sob o pretexto de exaltá-la”. O artigo também ressaltou o fato de a mostra acontecer em um local privado e fechado, contrariando o próprio conceito de arte urbana. Mas quem é Banksy? Os primeiros grafites de Banksy surgiram no início dos anos 1990, em Bristol, no oeste da Inglaterra. Desde então, suas obras podem aparecer em qualquer canto do mundo, em lugares públicos. Mas ninguém conhece ao certo seu rosto ou identidade. Existe ainda a teoria de que Banksy é, na verdade, um coletivo de artistas. Banksy foi um dos principais percursores da street art, que acabou se tornando objeto de desejo de colecionadores e atração de grandes leilões. É difícil de saber como o próprio Banksy, ou quem quer que esteja atrás dessa marca, pensa sobre isso. Recentemente o grafite da menina do Bataclan foi devolvido à França, depois de ter sido roubada e levada para a Itália. Um outro grafite foi retirado da entrada da garagem do Centro Pompidou, também em Paris. Em Calais, no norte da França, um spray de Banksy fazendo referência aos clandestinos que sonham em atravessar o canal da Mancha para chegar à Inglaterra foi protegido por uma tela de acrílico. Há também o episódio do quadro – um spray de “A Menina com um Balão” - que se autodestruiu em 2018, após arrematar US$ 1,4 milhão em um leilão da Sotheby’s, em Londres. Uma crítica ao mercado milionário da arte contemporânea? Ou um golpe de autopublicidade? O evento agrada ao grande público, tanto que o término já foi prorrogado duas vezes. “A street art passa mensagens. Ou não. Ela traz questionamentos, reflexões. Surpreende e aparece em locais insólitos. Além disso, é acessível a todos, pois é de graça. A arte urbana é algo muito popular”, diz a professora Célia, em visita ao espaço. “Gosto do Banksy porque ele é completamente invisível, não quer aparecer, faz coisas que exigem coragem, como no muro que separa Israel e a Palestina. Ele é provocador, mas suave ao mesmo tempo. É um artista excepcional. Ou uma artista, pois não sabemos se é uma mulher”, acrescenta Célia. Candidato ao Oscar Banksy foi candidato ao Oscar de melhor documentário em 2011, com o divertido e irreverente “Saída pela loja”. O longa  conta as peripécias de um excêntrico francês, baseado em Los Angeles, dono de um brechó de roupas, que é obcecado em filmar tudo o que se passa ao seu redor, até mergulhar na street art. Há polêmicas de que o personagem principal, Thierry Guetta, teria sido “fake”, ou seja, pago para interpretar a si mesmo. A mostra O Mundo de Banksy fica em cartaz no espaço Lafayette-Druot, em Paris, até 31 de dezembro.  

November 5, 2018. This week Nick is joined via call by his friend and art-lover Georgia Hausmann, all the way from Cornell University in Ithica, NY. They both watched the 2010 Oscar-nominated street art documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, directed by the man who brought this form of art into the spotlight: Banksy. The documentary focuses on the development of Banksy's friend/coworker, Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash), and has transformation from filmmaker to street artist. In this episode, they discuss several of Banksy's famous stunts, how Banksy's art was meant to be temporary yet it is sold in galleries now, if Thierry Guetta is a genius or an idiot, whether he is scamming people or if he believes his work is good, whether everyone should be encouraged to pursue art, why certain artists make it and others are left forgotten, if street art has reinvented how we think about art or if this is how it's always been, the idea of branding and its relationship to art, originality with art and what makes it actually good, if Mr. Brainwash's work is all a hoax, and much more! For any of those on the fence about this episode or documentary, please go watch and witness one of the most fascinating stories about art, talent, fame, and how a man without any of that made it. Check us out on instagram: @nick_ladue @hausparty_

George spoke with Eric Steuer about one of his favorite docs, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (2010)The only film credited to Banksy, Exit Through The Gift Shop tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a self-taught street artist/documentarian who ends up becoming the subject of the film. It has to be seen to be believed, and even then there’s a lot that is unbelievable, as befits a prankster like Banksy. Is Thierry aka Mr. Brainwash real or a long con? We get into the theories and the comedy of the art world.Eric Steuer works with artists, media companies, technology developers, and cultural institutions on the use of Creative Commons licenses and CC-licensed content. Before joining CC, Eric was an editor for Wired magazine, where he is currently a correspondent, covering the intersection of technology and popular culture. As a musician he’s released a bunch of recordings and remixes, the most recent being the Dos Feeliz “Most Realest” EP(Plug Research) and Not The 1s “Your Man Is Garbage” single.Reddit AMA from someone who worked for Mr. Brainwash.Follow us on:Twitter: @supdocpodcastInstagram: @supdocpodcastFacebook: @supdocpodcastsign up for our mailing listAnd you can show your support to Sup Doc by donating on Patreon.

The week(s) Matt and Mark are still in full doc mode and review the Banksy film Exit Through The Gift Shop. A meta-documentary of sorts, Bansky deconstructs the art hype machine with the human graffiti equivalent Thierry Guetta, an OCD film maker turned street artist. A film so deftly wrought, the ability of the viewer to discover the edge of the hoax and the beginning of reality is seamless. Banksy sets fire to the trash heap of post-modern philosophical mental masturbation and lights his cigarette with it.Download: 242 Exit Through the Gift Shop

Today we're talking about Exit Through The Gift Shop. It's a neat little Documentary about an interesting guy by the name of Thierry Guetta, who followed Street Artists with a camera and ended up becoming a street artist himself followed by the camera he abandoned. There's not a lot of substance in terms of filmmaking, but the story telling is very well done and it's just a fun, interesting story. If you wanna check it out, it's available on Netflix. (remember to thank the friend that pays for your account.) Cheers! If you want the Video Version to this podcast The link is below

This month, we take a change in direction from previous episodes in reviewing the 2010 documentary film 'Exit Through The Gift Shop', which chronicles the misadventures of UK street-artist 'Banksy'.  Both serious and satirical, the film follows eccentric cameraman Thierry Guetta as he haphazardly makes inroads into the underground street-art scene, eventually taking on the role of Banksy's Documentarian and Personal Assistant. After a high-profile U.S exhibition brings him overnight fame and fortune, Banksy instructs Thierry to start compiling his documentary footage so that the real story behind the media sensation can be told; though he soon learns that Thierry posesses neither creativity nor competence as a filmmaker.  As Banksy takes over the editing himself, he instructs Thierry to go forth and pursue his own artistic visions on the street, only to find that Thierry has bigger plans in mind, and has hired a large staff of artists to start mass-producing his plagiarised pop-art concepts. After conducting a savvy and elaborate public relations campaign as ‘Mr Brainwash’, Thierry opens his new gallery to public applause and highly lucrative profits, much to the chagrin of Banksy and his colleagues.  We discuss the synergistic relationship between the world of modern art and public relations, where the currency of an artist is determined by publicity and networking, and the content of the artwork is less important than its perceived social context. The film appears to be critiquing this paradigm in ‘mockumentary’ style, while still advocating the exploitation of these principals - begging the question as to what sentiment is actually being communicated? We also touch on the history of establishment influences in countercultural art movements, exploring questions of artistic integrity versus commercial opportunity; ultimately interpreting the entire film itself as a cynical exercise in guerrilla marketing. By both exposing and exploiting the frivolous nature of the art world, the film employs a masterful blend of satire, controversy and contradiction to create mystique around the artist.  Is Banksy really a single individual, or simply the brand name used by an underground clique of artists and spin doctors? Was Thierry Guetta a lucky entrepreneur, or was he the cynical face of an elaborate and lucrative publicity stunt? Topics discussed include: Banksy, Shepherd Fairey, Obey, Andre the Giant, Art, PR, Public Relations, Thierry Guetta, Mr Brainwash, Street Art, Pop-Art, Andy Warhol, Mockumentary, Hoax, Space Invader, Disneyland, LA, Cynicism, Publicity, Gallery, Exhibition, CIA, Congress for Cultural Freedom, Cold War, International Operations Division, George Soros, Open Society Institute, Tides Foundation, Adbusters, Occupy, Saatchi, Tate, Modern Art, Shock Value, Context, Rockefeller, Brangelina, Counterculture, Celebrity, Barely Legal, Prank, Occult, Alchemical, Secret Society, Initiation, Neophyte, Ritual, Drama, Promotion, Marketing, Publicity Stunt, Funding, Grants, Leftist Critiques, Anti-Establishment, Capitalism, Exploitation, Satire, Punk, Stencils, Installations, Staff, Crew, Guerrilla Marketing, Perception, Meaning, Hidden Clues, Themes, Memes, Contradictions, Profits, Commercialisation, London, Bristol, Logistics, Jackson Pollock, Post-Modernism, Rip-Offs, Production, Branding, Mystery, Subculture, Social Statements, Secrecy, Resources, Compromise, Group Projects. 

Cover image by "Mr Brainwash", the moniker of Los Angeles-based filmmaker and pop artist Thierry Guetta. He has spent the better part of the last decade attempting to make the ultimate street art documentary. Meanwhile, inspired by his subjects, he started hitting the streets, from Los Angeles to Paris, with spray paint stencils and posters of his pop art-inspired images. The post Litro #110: Street Fiction appeared first on Litro Magazine.