Banksy’s very legal contribution to the Cans Festival…

In case you’ve been living under a rock, London is playing host to the CANS FESTIVAL this weekend, a huge show of stencil art with over 40 international street & graffiti artists participating, including movement figurehead and onetime rebel BANKSY, who masterminded the entire affair. These photos represent the first look at his work in the show. Located in an unused Eurostar terminal at Waterloo on the capital’s South Bank, the very legal festival intends to showcase one of London’s most popular tourist attractions in a safe, controlled setting. We’re not exactly sure why it’s called the “Cans Festival” instead of the more obvious “Stencil Festival,” but we are surprised Sir Banksy himself is taking center stage in the show. The gangster move would have certainly been for Banksy to shun participation in the festival while dropping an illegal bomb of massive proportions elsewhere in the city as a movement-leading show of force. Who knows, it’s a long holiday weekend in Fogtown, perhaps our man’s got something up his sleeve yet. Meantime, here’s what Banksy had to say about organizing the show: “Graffiti doesn’t always spoil buildings, in fact it’s the only way to improve a lot of them. In a few hours with a couple of hundred cans of paint, I’m hoping we can transform a dark, dirty, neglected hellhole into an oasis of beautiful art. I’ve always felt anyone with a paint can should have as much say in how our cities look as architects and ad men, so getting to cover an entire street with graffiti is a dream come true, or as some people might call it, a complete and utter nightmare.” The show is being sponsored & organized by PICTURES ON WALLS, an East End printmaker that produces limited-edition screenprints by Banksy and Faile, among others. Tonite marks the VIP first-look debut of the show with A-listers like Kevin Spacey strolling through the tunnel, cocktails in hand, admiring the Street Art in spacious privacy before the sweaty masses are admitted on Saturday with an expected 75,000+ fans expected to descend on the show. Stay tuned for more updates throughout the weekend…

Tagline: “What a lot of rubbish”

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 5:56 am and is filed under Art Stunts, Banksy, Graffiti, Hype 2.0, Laugh Trak, London, News, RIP, Street Art, Street Life, WTF???, art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.