Exit Through The Gift Shop

A Film by Banksey

Cinetic International

Distributed by Madman

R4 DVD

Banksy is a well known “street artist”, but this film is not really about him. It follows the history of Thierry Guetta as he tries to get into the street art scene. Thierry is a compulsive filmer of “anything that moves” but it was only when he met some street artists and was allowed to film them at work one night that this became his passion.

Street Art or graffiti or mindless destruction of property for kicks? Some graffitists have a certain artistic ability, often along the lines of a graphic or poster artist, but others are still covering walls with incoherent daubs. Calling themselves “street artists” is often just a fancy name to justify their crimes against property. The graffiti “artists” themselves don’t seem to have any pretensions to artistic ability. The thrill and danger seem to be what they are after, and getting their “tag” out where it can be seen. Is there some sort of prestige in how much property you can deface? Apparently yes. A good example is seen where a group of graffitists spray the wagons of a passing train from a large pressure tank of paint – there is no pretence at art or tags at all, just malicious defacement and the thrill of doing something illegal.

At the other end of the scale is the true street artist whose work is often of a higher technical quality and artistic value. They may use media like billboard-style posters and stencils and a single work may take most of a night to put up on a wall or billboard. There is still the element of defacing property but least their work goes closer to art than to mindless vandalism.

“I choose a wall because I like it – because it has a texture that I like”. It’s a shame about the owner of the wall who may not like their daubs, but the “artists “ seem to have no moral or ethical reticence about other peoples’ property.

Some artists, however, show a high level of ability and their work is often a social commentary. Banksy is one such. His graffiti is often amusing or of high quality. Some of his work on the concrete wall separating the Gaza Strip from Palestine is superb and attractive and takes the edge off what would be otherwise be an eyesore.

Following a public exhibition by Banksy the art establishment jumped on the bandwagon and declared street art to be a form of art and therefore very collectible (at high prices).

Thierry had been following the artists around for years, filming everything as he went.

They all assumed he was making a documentary about their work but he was not a filmmaker in any accepted sense. His films were just shoved into storage boxes, uncatalogued and undetailed. Under pressure from the artists he had filmed he finally came up with a rough cut of a film of sorts.

Thierry’s film “Life Remote Control” was a badly constructed mishmash of short cuts with no apparent story – Banksy compared it with a man watching TV and flicking through the channels, a few seconds each. He suggested that Thierry stop work on the film. He would work on it while Thierry went back to the U.S. and got some experience in doing his own street art. Thierry jumped at the opportunity and mortgaged or cashed in everything he had. His work was derivative and produced with the help of a team of graphics artists and screen printers, apparently aimed

more at the art market. It would probably be correct to call his work street art-influenced graphic art.

His first public exhibition in Los Angeles looked like being a success but behind the scenes it was chaos. Thierry had found another area where he had no expertise at all but he wouldn’t rely on professional help, insisting on running the whole show himself. One worker said of him in frustration “He’s just retarded”. The show eventually went on and sold over a million dollars worth of “artwork” – note the word, not “street art”.

Banksy, meanwhile, recut Thierry’s film and turned it into a documentary about this obsessive man rather than street art. Along the way he shows us a lot of the street art styles, introduces some of the artists and gives us a better understanding of their passion. He avoids the ethical issues (I was interested in seeing what the artists thought of the costly cleanups their work often required).

The film is a fascinating look at one man’s obsession to belong to a group. It leaves many questions unanswered but at least explains what the phenomenon is all about.

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