Exit through the gift shop!

Exit through the gift shop! by Banksy

​‘Exit only after passing through the gift shop’ refers to the structure of an art museum where you have to pass through the gift shop to exit after viewing an exhibition, and is a criticism of the modern art world colluding with commercialism.

​Banksy, a graffiti artist from Bristol, England. He is a writer whose real name, name, age, etc. are not revealed. He secretly exhibited his parody works at the British Museum and the Louvre Museum, and painted graffiti expressing his wish for peace on the wall between Israel and Palestine.

​Image reference: https://banksy.co.uk/out.html

​<Exit through the gift shop> is a documentary directed by Banksy. His beginnings were strange. His name was Thierry Guetta, a French native who sold used clothing in the United States. Gueta, who took a camera everywhere he went and filmed everything, learned that his cousin, who goes by the stage name ‘Space Invader,’ did street art. Guetta followed him into the world of street art. Street art works and work processes that are difficult to record due to their illegality and one-time nature were captured on Guetta's tapes.

​The problem is that Guetta was not a film director but a ‘documentary enthusiast.’ Guetta's warehouse was filled with rare materials, but he never looked at the tapes. It's just recorded, not organized. Banksy felt it was a shame to see precious records of street art lost, so he encouraged Guetta to make his material into a film, and after struggling with the tape for six months, Guetta created the ‘work’. Banksy said after seeing the work. “He was not a film director. “He was mentally ill, but there was just a camera.”

In the end, Banksy decided to make his own film, and the result was <Exit Through the Gift Shop>. ‘The process of Guetta’s debut as a graffiti artist towards the end is exciting. It shows artists, media, collectors, and the public mired in megalomania turning ‘scrap’ into ‘works.’

​Watching this film is interesting because you can vividly see the process of how street art entered the world of commercial galleries and art shows. In addition, you can watch how a famous artist becomes commercially available in an instant through Tierra Guerra, an eccentric camera enthusiast who disguised himself as Mr. Brainwash. Is this just a joke? So, we have to ask ourselves a serious question: What really is art?

​When I was in Germany, in 2006, one day I passed through a long alley that led to a narrow, dark underground parking lot. In a gray, narrow passageway where no light came in and the only smell was the musty smell of cement, a graffiti exhibition framed with artist tape caught my eye. The exhibition, which was like a child's doodles, conveyed interest, curiosity, and sparkling joy to me as I walked through the boring and dirty aisles. And from that day on, I wanted to express something every day. I carefully took out the dream of becoming an ‘artist’, which I had erased from my memory because I thought it was realistically impossible. From then on, I drew pictures whenever I felt depressed and discouraged, and many such pictures were collected. And with these paintings, I was truly able to live the life I dreamed of as a child: an artist.

​The inspiration for 'art' that I felt while passing through the underpass was a collection of 'extremely ordinary, boring and simple things that live all around us.' It is as invisible and insignificant as air, so we live as slaves to greed, hypocrisy, and corruption in deep oblivion, without even knowing that we live because of this air. True art awakens humans and allows them to discover very important truths that they have lost in their lives. It is like a twinkling star shining alone in the pitch-dark night sky. I found a single ray of light in the darkness and moved forward.

​However, as a painter since my debut in 2011, I feel great barriers every day. It is like a large 8-meter-high wall surrounding the Gaza Strip, blocking out all the scenery in the world and making the artist isolated. Although they want to pursue art with a pure and sincere heart, the reality is that there are too many people who interfere with the art of these artists. In fact, the purity of art itself and commerciality cannot mix like water and oil. However, people value true beauty and pay for it. That is why artists are well aware of the moment when a painting turns into money. Artists make a living by drawing and selling paintings. Therefore, except for some very lucky artists who are famous and don't have to worry about making a living, they have to constantly generate ideas to turn their paintings into money to survive. From the artist's point of view, this film feels like watching the growth diary of an unpleasant scammer. It makes you think that you can become a famous artist if you have direct connections and support from famous artists, capital, business sense, and the courage and eloquence to not be easily discouraged by criticism. So what is true art in this chaos?

​In my case, I don't have time to go all-in on promotion or business. To be honest, there isn't much time allowed to draw. In some ways, it feels like neither time nor money is on my side, and I become frustrated with this reality. Because of practical difficulties, at some point I started practicing drawing pictures in my head, and thanks to that, I was able to draw inspiration that came to me without having to see anything. I struggle like this a little bit every day. And actually, I think there are more artists like me in the world. I think it is important to enjoy the process itself if you pursue true art, regardless of whether you succeed or not or gain wealth and fame. Above all, I am moving forward every day, following the stars twinkling in the night sky.