Banksy – Exit through the gift shop

Noisebud, 2011, August 29

The documentary “Banksy – Exit through the gift shop” directed by Banksy is a film about street art, Banksy and Thierry Guetta a.k.a Mr. Brainwash (MBW), or is it?

The film treats the question what art is from a different angle, perhaps by mistake. MBW’s ‘art’ is pretty average, it seems to be produced in a professional way but the artistic content is near zero, as with about 90% of all music. Artists like Basshunter, David Guetta (hahaha, another Guetta… I actually worked for him and his a nice guy even though with an average taste), Madonna, Kylie Minogue does exactly the same thing as MBW, they create and ride the hype. It’s nothing wrong with that, they just exploit what they’re good at. Their talent is to convince average Joe that what they do is worth a lot of dough. If that is music, art, clothes or toys doesn’t matter; the goal is to sell, not to produce any quality content.

As a musician it can be hard to understand why the top 20 hardly ever hold any interesting music and here’s your answer; it’s not a list of the best and most interesting music, it’s a list of the best current peddlers.

Some think that Mr. Brainwash actually is Banksy himself, which would make Mr. Brainwash one of his most brilliant pieces, and in that case he’s making a point by producing chomp through art, but I don’t think this is the case… I think the psychotic Thierry Guetta is the loony Frenchmen he say’s he is even if I hope otherwise.

Anyways, you should check it out. It’s intelligent and fun… I think I’m going to see it again.