Banksy Strikes Back with a New Piece in Venice22.05.2019

The nine-painting installation Venice in Oil, arranged in the form of a street artist stall, appeared in one of the city’s piazzas during the Venice Biennale.   

The installation, however, was not an official part of the arts exhibition, one of the biggest in the world. The notorious street artist, whose identity has remained a mystery for decades, was not even invited to the Biennale, but his guerrilla appearance at the festival is bound to be remembered—exhibited at the street stall and coming together into one single image, the nine-piece installation is a searing indictment of the Italian government and a commentary on the destructive impact of tourism on the ancient city. 

Moored in the picturesque canals of what has been called the “sinking city”, the mammoth cruise ships have become a serious problem in the past years. Although boosting tourism revenues by bringing in as many as thirty million tourists every years, their presence has had a definitely adverse impact on the city itself—the colossal vessels, weighing hundreds of thousands of tonnes each, have sped up coastal erosion and ruined local ecosystems. And although the Italian lawmakers voted in a ban on cruise ships entering the city’s center just last year, fully implementing it will take up as long as four years.