Last Thursday, Banksy debuted his newest art exhibition in Westonsuper-Mare seafront, UK – Dismaland. “A family theme park that is unsuitable for small children,” is how Banksy describes it.
Depressive and practically unresponsive staff in pink jackets “welcomes” visitors, but that is after they have to walk through airport security made out of cardboard – just the beginning of puns and jokes.
A distorted mermaid, a dilapidated castle, roving occupy protests and a pond filled with boats of migrants are just a few of the exhibits. There is a “pocket money loans” shop that offers money to children with an interest rate of 5,000%. In another exhibit, would-be anarchists discover how to unlock Adshel posters that are seen at bus stops. People can also pay for the tools to break into them and replace the posters with anything that they want.
“Bring the whole family to come and enjoy the latest addition to our chronic leisure surplus-a bemusement park. A theme park who’s big theme is: theme parks should have bigger themes…” reads the brochure.
Banksy promises that the show is not a jab at Disney and made sure that Mickey Mouse would not be included in any of the artist’s work. A total of 58 artsists were chosen to create something special for the exhibition. Jenny Holzer, Paco Pomet, Ronit Baranga, Damien Hirst, Julie Burchill and Jimmy Cauty, who used to be part of KLF are just a few of the artists that participated.
It has been said that Banksy paid for the entire exhibition himself, although we will have to wait and see if he can make a profit on it. The show will run for a total of 36 days, until September 27. Since there is a cap of 4,000 tickets to be sold each day and tickets cost just three pounds each, it is only possible for Banksy to cash out with 400,000 pounds. However, it is Banksy – is he really looking to make a profit on this at all
Banksy could make a killing if he removed the cap – on “locals only” ticket day, the website crashed after six million people tried to log on. Who would have thought that people would want to visit a dark theme park? Everybody seems to be jumping at this possible chance of a life time, so if you have the means, get to the UK quickly – http://dismaland.co.uk/
Advisor Abbate 