The Banksy museum in New York is now a reality. With almost 200 timeless pieces that show the career of the mysterious artist, this Wednesday “The Big Apple” has inaugurated its corner where New Yorkers will be able to stroll and delight in his drawings that harshly portray themes that, despite the passing of the years, remain on the order of the day, as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the migration crisis.

In pure Banksy style, the museum that bears his name has been installed in an old gym in New York’s Chinatown. Some canvases that have been reproduced by a group of ten artists who, like the British, have preferred to preserve their anonymity. To maintain the essence of the work, the replicas have maintained the essence of the works both in their original locations, as well as the arrangement that the artist gave to his graffiti and with destroyed concrete blocks at his feet or with holes and scratches, and even The wall on which they are placed is an exact reproduction of the walls on which the original version was painted.

Banksy’s timelessness

Much of the exhibition features graffiti and paintings that portray the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Palestine, two issues that are currently in the eye of the hurricane and that show the timelessness of Banksy’s art, since many of the pieces were made years or even decades ago.

“Art is timeless. You can’t look at art without making a connection to what’s happening today.“said the museum’s founder, Hazis Vardar. In the section dedicated to Palestine and Israel, the reproduction of a room from the Walled Off hotel in the city of Bethlehem stands out, founded by Banksy in 2017 and also conceived as an art gallery. which, until its recent closure, financed local projects.

The walls of this room are decorated with imposing pieces such as extensive graffiti ‘Israeli & Palestinian Pillow Fight’which shows a pillow fight between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian man, or ‘Watchtower’, a painting in which children from both territories have fun with a live guy. And on many occasions, the British artist chooses children as the protagonists of his works, portraying their innocence and the ignorance with which they live the wars that threaten their places of origin.

Precisely, in the exhibition, children are the ones who narrate a large part of the war in Ukraine through works such as a large mural where a boy defeats an adult man in a judo fight that, according to some experts, could be a representation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Another girl relates it to the immigration crisis, in a graffiti in which she observes through a telescope a ship trying to cross the border and which appears full of corpses and people who seem to ask for help. “Banksy does not take sides (in conflicts), but has a human approach that reaches the public”said the museum’s executive director, William Meade.

A museum full of contradictions Beyond his well-known social criticism, Banksy, originally from Bristol (England), stands out for his fierce criticism of the commercialization of art and his general rejection of museums, values ​​that contrast with the inauguration of this gallery, which sells its tickets for $30 each. “(The contradiction) is the best part of all this”Meade said with a laugh. “It’s kind of ironic, but at the same time, I think of it as: ‘If we didn’t have a way to record a wonderful concert, how would people listen to it? A lot of Banksy’s works are destroyed, and we’ve been able to “capturing his art, honoring the way he originally made it.”