Genius or Vandal? In Moscow, opened the first Russian exhibition of street art-artist Banksy

The first personal exhibition in Russia of the British artist-graffiti artist Banksy, whose visitors can see about 100 of his works, was opened on Saturday at the Central House of Artists in Moscow. Organizers offer visitors to determine for themselves who the mysterious artist is - "a genius or a vandal", TASS was informed by the producer of the exhibition Alexander Nachkebia.

"We had a great temptation to go to a kind of Disneyland: make a vandal story out of it all, as Banksy agent Steve Lazarides already did.He chose white walls for the exhibition and then went and smeared it all with red paint.But we decided to make a museum show so that people have the opportunity to look at the art of Banksy without distractions, and everyone will decide for themselves who Banksy is - a genius or a vandal, an artist or a businessman? " - noted Nachkebia.

Guests of the exhibition are greeted by the artist's studio - a copy of the shot from the film Banksy "Exit through the souvenir shop" in 2010, where he showed how the world of street artists works. It is followed by a multimedia zone, which in a concise form gives an idea of ​​the main themes of the British work: a speech against politicking, militarization, the use of slave labor, consumerism and other vices of modern society. Organizers did not ignore the controversy surrounding the personality of the artist himself: according to one version, behind the pseudonym lies the musician of the trip-hop group Massive Attack Robert Del Nye.

"When we practically made up the collection, I saw that Massive Attack will perform at the Park Live festival in Moscow this summer It would be foolish to postpone the opening of the exhibition and not make people compare these events, in a certain way this is, of course, a marketing move, - the producer admitted.

The exposition, made up of the collections of the Lilley Fine Art Gallery, several contemporary art museums, as well as private collections of collectors around the world, included screen works made with a spray on cardboard and canvas, offset lithographs on paper, rare prints, pictures of Banksy drawings on the streets London and its installations. 26 exhibits are designated as originals, among them - unique works donated by the artist to friends and created for the exhibition in Bristol. Particular attention is attracted to Banksy's autograph.

"Contemporary art differs from the classical, where the number of works of the artist is limited," Nachkebia explained. "Modern artists make prints that are often valued even more than unique works." For example, in our exposition there is a collection of Kate Moss prints of six that are unique , that they are all of the same number, their price is £ 100,000. "

Producer said that it was not easy to agree on the arrival of work in Russia. "The first question I was asked was," How can I be sure that this work will return? "I had to persuade people." In one week I had to fly to New York three times, because I flew in, arranged, flew away, something happened in foreign policy, and the collector broke the agreement, "- he shared.

In this regard, as well as against the background of the incident with the damaged painting by Ilya Repin in the Tretyakov Gallery, the organizers paid special attention to the protection of the exhibition. "We took sufficient security measures: all the work is guarded, there is video surveillance, but we managed to keep parity between the safety of the exhibits and so that people could look at them calmly," Nachkebia said.

Nachkebia said that the organizers did not attempt to contact the artist himself. I think he himself will express himself about us and is unlikely to say anything good, because he never says anything good about people who show his art for money, "he said. supports only the exhibitions that he does himself, but one can wait very long until he makes an exhibition in Russia. "

You can see the works of the "artist-puzzle" in Moscow before September 2.