Exit Through the Gift Shop- Banksy

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary film directed by notorious street artist Banksy. The film documents the true story of Thierry Guetta on his artistic journey from an eccentric French thrift store owner living in Los Angeles to a hugely successful artist. Guetta has an obsessive passion for video recording, and he records every waking moment of his life. Although to begin with this mainly consists of running his shop and living with his family, a trip to visit his cousin in Paris changes Thierry’s life forever, and gives new purpose to his obsessive hobby.

Guetta’s cousin is a Parisian street artist called Invader, who creates 2D characters from the arcade game ‘Space Invaders’ out of small, coloured mosaic tiles. Invader then pastes these mosaics onto walls, statues, etc to create an ‘invasion’ wherever they are found. Guetta’s passion for street art begins with Invader and leads to him meeting Shepard Fairey, a successful American artist whose work includes the iconic Barack Obama ‘HOPE’ poster, and the reworked image of professional wrestler Andre the Giant into the popular ‘OBEY Giant’ image.

A piece by Invader in Shoreditch, London

Fairey’s iconic Barack Obama ‘HOPE’ poster in Denver, Colorado

By following and filming Fairey and other street artists in Los Angeles, Guetta develops a reputation as someone who knows the best spots for graffiti art. Therefore, when a certain Bristol born Brit arrives in L.A. for his first American exhibition, Guetta is recommended as someone who can work alongside Banksy. The two immediately become friends, and Guetta is present during Banksy’s controversial Disneyland stunt, when a lifesize replica of a Guantanamo Bay detainee is placed at the California theme park.      

Banksy’s inflatable Guantanamo detainee in Disneyland, California

Allowing Guetta to film him in action went against Banksy’s secretive, undercover persona. However the benefits of having his work on film were obvious because the art was often, due to its nature, transitory. Banksy was under the impression that the footage was going towards a film about street art, however Guetta’s obsession lay solely in filming, and he had never actually watched back the hundreds of tapes he had recorded. Therefore, when Guetta was asked to produce the film, he wildly strung together random short clips, and then impatiently flicked between them, calling his work ‘Life Remote Control.’

Banksy immediately recognised this film was unwatchable, and a colossal waste of the unique and valuable footage Guetta had accumulated. The solution was for Banksy to take Guetta’s footage and produce the film himself (the product of which is Exit Through the Gift Shop). In the meantime, Banksy suggested that Guetta should become an artist in his own right. Although Guetta seemingly lacked any genuine artistic talent, his debut exhibition received great publicity and was an immediate success- mainly due to endorsement from Banksy. Within two months of selling his art, ‘Mr Brainwash’ as Guetta now called himself, had made over a million dollars.

Mr Brainwashes debut exhibition featuring on the cover of LA Weekly, June 2008

The crux of the film is arguably the manner in which Mr Brainwash becomes a massively successful artist overnight. Some have suggested, and the name ‘Mr Brainwash’ supports this theory, that Guetta’s rise to artistic majesty is a complete hoax; a trick played by Banksy and co. to expose the fickle and superficial nature of the art world. Although this conspiracy does seem plausible, partly because much of Mr Brainwashes work resembles that of Banksy, I do not believe this is the case. Instead, I believe it was only apparent afterwards (to Banksy and everyone else) how conclusively Mr Brainwash had undermined the contemporary art scene. In this sense Banksy is similar to the fictional scientist Frankenstein, because both men brought something into the world without being fully aware of the monster it would become.

“I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don’t do that so much anymore” – Banksy