Exit Through The Gift Shop

Over the past couple of years I have become quite interested in street art. Less so the tagging and old school graffiti but more along the lines of stencils, stickups and other more politically orientated pieces. I was therefore looking forward to getting along to the new art-doco "Exit Through The Gift Shop." I was pretty stoked as being an ARThouse film it was only on at one or two cinemas in New York, one of which was just round the corner from me on Houston St. 

The story is primarily about a guy called Thierry Guetta a.k.a Mr Brainwash (MBW). MBW is a French guy living in LA with a habit of repeating the same sentence several times. Back in the 80's he started carrying a video camera everywhere and filming random events. While back visiting family in France he discovered that his cousin was the famous Parisian street artist known as Space Invader. Through a series of events MBW began focusing his camera work on the growing street art scene in various places around the world. This all culminated in a chance encounter with the most famous street artist today, Banksy. 

Some Space Invader from my recent trip to Paris

 

The first two-thirds of the film was really good. There was some great footage of some of the most famous street artists around and it was great to see how MBW's interest in street art evolved. The highlights were various interviews with Banksy. The humour in much of his art was evident when being interviewed in person. 

I left the cinema feeling a little frustrated however. I was not sure if it was the fact that I sat in the front row and was in dire need to get a neck massage. I think it was more the last third and watching Thierry become MBW. By becoming MBW, he assumes the role of 'artist' but is he really that or merely someone with deep pockets and the ability hire people to bring his visions to reality? 

Through the later part of the movie I felt the vibe that everything he did was really designed and executed by someone else and MBW came along and splattered a bit of paint on it. I don't want to take away from the fact that he has obviously had an important role in the production of an end product but the whole concept does not gel that well me with. I think in the end those that buy into the hype are really having the piss taken out of them.

Footnote

I thought the poster put on top of the movie advertising poster above was quite funny.