Register
Wishlist
Contact Us
Banksy, Mr Brainwash? Mr Brainwash, Banksy? Who is Banksy? And who is Mr. Brainwash? Are they the same person? Find out the truth about Banksy and Mr. Brainwash.
On the occasion of the exhibition “A Visual Protest, The Art of Banksy” at Mudec Museum in Milan, the art of the famous British Street Artist is the talk of the town. An editorial though, among all the others, caught our eye. Ferdinando Cutugno, on an article for Vanity Fair, ask the question of which everyone would like to have the answer of: Who is Banksy? Among the hypothesis, a name comes out: Mr. Brainwash, artist globally renowned nowadays. But why Mr. Brainwash is the one so often associated with Banksy? We are here to answer that.
Thierry Guetta (MBW) meet Banksy
Mr. Brainwash’s story is strictly related to Banksy. During the fist years 2000, Thierry Guetta, real name of Mr.Barinwash, is just an eccentric retailer of a vintage shop in Los Angeles, who enjoys filming everything that happens in his life with his small camera. He has meters and meters of tape about his kids’ birth, of his wife smiling, of his days spent in the shop.
Faith wants his cousin to be the famous street artist Invader. Thierry is fascinated about Los Angeles street art scene ad starts to follow Invader, Obey and many other artists during their nocturnal raids.
After having filmed all the bests in action, Thierry Guetta decides that the moment has come to get in touch with the greatest of all: Banksy. Here the paths join. Banksy agrees to be filmed (although always with his face covered), while Thierry promises to realized a documentary completely dedicated to street art.
Are Banksy and Mr. Brainwash friends? Guess what? Well, with this documentary the two actually became good friends and Banksy noticed a great artistic potential in Thierry (even though scarce ability as director). “I will make a documentary about you” Thierry gladly accepts the challenge and starts to take Los Angeles walls. Mr. Brainwash has born.
The Documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop"
In 2010 Banksy presents to the public “Exit through the Gift Shop”, a documentary focused on Mr. Brainwash ascent and about the street art movement. The success is global, and the documentary receives an Oscar nomination, together with the win of several critique’s awards. From that moment on, Mr. Brainwash phenomenon will be unstoppable.
Bansky has been the first to recognise the infinite potential of Mr. Brainwash: pure foresight, or there’s something more? Those who believes that Mr. Brainwash is actually Banksy stress on the fact that a street artist would never do all this for the success of a colleague. In support to this thesis, the fact that Mr. Brainwash inserts in his works many symbols peculiar of Banksy’s art.
First of all, the renowned Banksy Thrower. The subject of the work is the Flower Thrower realized by Banksy in 2003 on a wall in Jerusalem, causing a bit of an uproar. Mr. Brainwash in this case ironically substituted the original bunch of flowers with a book, “Art for dummies”. Unavoidable also the iconic “Girl with Balloon”. We do not know if Banksy and Mr. Brainwash are really the same person. What is certain is that both of them are among the most influential, requested and famous contemporary street artists in the world.
Do you want to know more about the relationship between Banksy and Mr. Brainwash? You cannot miss the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop! You can find it on Apple Here.
Moreover, if you are thinking about visiting the show “A Visual Protest. The Art of Banksy”, at Mudec museum in Milan, you can find the exclusive DVD box-set, with many extra contents and a collection of essays on the topic.
