Blek Le Rat Comments On Art, Mr Brainwash, Banksy...

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Mr Brainwash 'All You Need Is Love' Mural

Fresh wall after unsucessfully trying to score an Oscar. I like this message.

Mr Brainwash 'From Camera To Street' Video

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Mr Brainwash 'One Love' Print Release Details

Here is artist Mr Brainwash's response to the recent Japanese disasters. This BEAUTY is called 'One Love' and it will be available at 3pm EST TODAY Friday March 18th. This is a 6 colour 22 x 30 inch screenprint with an edition size of 100, comes signed and numbered by the artist for $250 each.

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Will The Real Banksy Please Stand Up?

So, this week there has been a lot of brew haha about artist Banksy being photographed (again?!). So it got me thinking... Here are some other photographs that claim to be Banksy. Below is the hippie dude from the Glastonbury stunt, notice the font on the board is definitely Banksy-esque. Hmmm...

So the two dudes above kinda sorta look a bit alike right? But they too are NOT HIM. The one below is the image we keep seeing in all the tabloids telling us Banksy's real name is Robin Gunningham. Below that is what is suspected to be Banksy in the background of the video for Modern Multiples videos showing them destroying all proofs and films for their session. But he is not wearing glasses, so I think this is NOT HIM. During the video you do hear Duardo say outloud "it has been great having Robin here this week" (or something similar in nature). Hmmm...

Dude above looks a lot like the dude leaning over from all the tabloids, but maybe 10 years younger. Which would make sense based on the subject matter on the wall that he is working on. A few random thoughts, is Banksy maybe a small group of artists? Can't be, can it? I asked a fellow Bristol artist recently if a street graffiti piece in Los Angeles was his and he informed me it was indeed Banky's piece and that Banksy was and has been living in Hollywood for a while now! Hmmm, seems strange he is living in Thierry & Shepard's backyards... But, here is the most confusing part of all. Below is a shitty cell phone pick catching Banksy?? in the act on the streets of London, BUT he is NOT wearing glasses, this image below is NOT HIM!

WTF? I give up! For now!

Exit Through The Gift Shop Wins Spirit Award For Best Doc

Mr Brainwash graciously accepts the trophy and gives a speech. Follow your dreams kids, follow your dreams

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Banksy WILL Be Allowed To Show Up At Oscar Awards Ceremony

Is Banksy’s Mr Brainwash An Art World Borat?

The New York Times' Milena Ryzik investigates Banksy’s new documentary (and Sundance hit) Exit Through The Gift Shop — asking, essentially, if the film is actually a satire, and the subject, French-Californian filmmaker turned street artist Mr. Brainwash, has been created to dupe the art world and mock the burgeoning art-factory system. Mr. Brainwash himself, a.k.a. Thierry Guetta, didn’t respond to her queries, but we spent three hours with Mr. Brainwash before the opening of his recent Manhattan art show "Icons." Our two cents? The show was so wretchedly derivative, repetitive, and insultingly insipid that we felt it could only have been an intentional prank: With its prints of famous figures Mr. Brainwash said he couldn't name from memory, and art made out of broken LPs (a staple of junk sales), it was as if they were taunting hipster collectors into buying the worst possible art to prove their hideous, herd-following taste. (Not to mention journalists' unethical gullibility: Mr. Brainwash kept trying to push a framed print on us, while mentioning how much we could sell it for on eBay.) We definitely felt put on (even if we respected the prank), but we couldn't prove it. So we tried to get him to admit it. The process was maddening.

So, this show is about icons. I see Bill Gates.
I know a little bit about Bill Gates. I don’t know deeply about his story, if it’s true or not true, but only to think about it and see what I hear is good enough for me.

Um, is that how you hope people approach you?
Like I say in the end of the film, I said, I cannot judge you. I’m not here to judge. If there is a judge today, it’s God. For me here, it’s my life. I cannot have somebody who says you are fake. Who are you to judge me? You know, you can judge me, it’s no problem. I am fake. You are fake … But it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop continuing what I’m doing — and the next step might be bigger and bigger and bigger ...

Plenty say this feels like a prank. Can you prove it’s not?
What do I do to prove? To live my life? One day for me is one life. The next day is another life. It’s not important what people say.

It will become important if a significant number of people come to your show saying it’s a prank.
By Banksy, yeah? Yeah, yeah, this is something, but it’s like what I’m going to do? If I do it, it’s my heart and I believe. I’m a guy who believes above all. I believe in God.

Sure, you believe — but are you playing a role?
No. No playing a role ... It depends on the role

Look, if you’re playing a joke on the art market, it’s a pretty fun joke.
Playing a joke on the art market? But the art market, is it a joke? When you think of white on a white canvas and sell it for millions of dollars, is it a joke? Is it a joke that some people are going to spend millions on this?

So if anyone deserves to be pranked, it's the art world …
No. I don’t believe that the art market is a joke or there is not a joke. I’m not here to judge. Is it a joke, like putting [an artist’s] name onto something by someone else, so the whole world become a joke? It’s how well you play your game. Jeff Koons making millions of dollars: People have said it’s not good what he does; it’s crazy. I respect him to play well his game.

Earlier, you said that, like Madonna or Oprah, you’re going to build a school with your proceeds? What proof do you have of that?
You cannot know. I can open my heart to you, or I can be a villain. [Maybe] I can grab the money and count my money and I say, “Oh, I joke them.” But somewhere I’m a believer.

For Banksy to direct or produce a fictional artist wouldn't be surprising. Let’s say you’re a paid actor, and great at improvising lines, like Borat. People might even think this will make these pieces more valuable, not less.
Yeah, definitely. But somewhere it comes to a point, like in the first hour of the film, you see that you’re dealing with a madman already, so a madman somewhere doesn’t have a limit. You're talking to a madman ... Art for me is everywhere.

For instance?
See that garbage outside? I wanted to make a sculpture inside — take all the garbage, put it on top of it, and make New York City. Very simple: The garbage is free. But I felt like human is the most beautiful piece of art for me.

If humans are the most interesting art, then it would make sense that your performance is your real art.
I feel like I said — it comes to a point, even artists that I have bought some art from, the more I know them, the more I know what they are, the more I don’t want [to know]. Art is the artist. Understand?

No. You’re steering around this question.
If I’m really an artist?

How do I know you’re not an actor?
Like I say, a big artist — I don’t want to say name — but this big artist has 140 people working for them. Sometimes, they don’t even come up with the idea. They say: “Like, No like.” But I respect that. The mind goes too fast. It’s not me having a nail and building a box, who cares, it’s a box, take it.

Yes, someone like Jeff Koons employs actors to create his pieces. But that's not the same as an actor playing a guy who runs an art studio. Are you someone else acting as Thierry Guetta?
The problem is I don’t understand really the question: Are you an actor to interview me? How do I know?

For starters, if you asked me, I would just say, "No, I’m not.
And I would say, "No, I’m not." Some way I’m not an actor. If I was an actor, I wouldn’t be here. The movie makes a big question mark of everything because you see the evolution of all this. Some people say, "Oh he copies this and he copies this." Who says that there is rules in art today? Who says what you cannot do? Learn about my past and tell me what I am in the present ...

But you don’t seem to have existed before your first show.
But everything comes up: You’ll find space, you’ll find art. I film everything. I make sculpture of Charlie Chaplin in bronze in 1989, or I don’t have timing, so I might say '89 if it’s '91, you know, but for me I know that I made it.

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Mr Brainwash 'Je T'aime' + 'I Love You' Prints Release Details

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Mr Brainwash 'Bat Papi + Cat Nana' Prints Release Details

Here finally is the release day for 'Bat Papi and Cat Nana' by artist Mr Brainwash. This originally popped up in early November but seemed to be quietly swept under the carpet until now! This will be sold as a diptych only and both prints will both be 11 colour 15 x 19 inch screenprints on uniquely hand stained hand torn archival art paper with an edition size of 150, these come thumb printed signed and numbered by the artist for $375 each. These will be available at 3pm EST on Tuesday February 8th.

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