Social networks were heated last Friday at the announcement of the transition to the fall of the exhibition Banksyland in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Sold as “the world’s largest exhibition on the world’s most mysterious artist”, welcomed on Facebook by “Yessss! “Thumbs up and the hearts of fanatics from the anonymous graffiti artist, the news was relayed without reservations by major media.
However, the exhibition, unauthorized by the artist, leaves in its wake in the United States a trail of severe criticism and ethical questions. Legal? As long as the artist does not sue, yes. Morality towards visitors? Let’s discuss it.
Banksy’s official website assures that no current exhibition in the world currently under his name has received his authorization or collaboration. He also warns that no image of his works can be used for commercial purposes, but that everyone is welcome to use them for non-commercial purposes, for personal amusement. “Print them in a color to match your curtains or make them a card for your grandma,” the site says.
Banksyland does not escape commercial purposes. The exhibition promises, on its website, for $29, one hour of proximity with “80 pieces and installations of original and “studio” works [sic], salvaged street art and immersive installations”. For $59, you can forget about time, with VIP admission, which also offers a poster and an audio guide.
In comparison, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts gives access to all its exhibitions, without time limit in a day, with a ticket at $24 (from 31 years old), and less for the youngest. And at this price come the scientific approach and the rigor of museums.
In the many articles that have sprung up on the passage of Banksyland, from Honolulu to Portland via San Diego, we read that the exhibition would include at most a dozen original works. Besides Rage, the flower thrower Or Smiling Copperthe bulk of the space is occupied by objects created by the designers of the exhibition (the One Thousand Ways organization).
Video projections of the artist’s work, sculptures made from two-dimensional images, photographs of street works printed on paper or canvas. In short, reproductions, derived objects. Such as those proposed to be purchased and taken home, as specified in the magazine Sightlynesfrom Austin, majoring in the arts.
The work and its reflections
“One of the interesting questions posed by this exhibition is that of the real and the unreal,” summarizes Jean-François Gauvin, director of the museology program at Laval University. And the question of visitors. We can separate there “who likes to be in contact with an authentic work, and who rather prefers to see the projection of a work on a large screen, or its reproduction”, indicates the specialist.
Banksy, a street artist whose identity remains unknown to this day, himself plays a lot on the real and the unreal. The one who started out as a graffiti artist is now recognized as much for his works as for his “coups”, which, with humor and self-mockery, criticize the art market while increasing his own artistic value.
“The organizers of Banksyland play on the same mystery as the artist”, notes Mr. Gauvin, on this border between unreal and real, true and false. Indeed, the location, near rue de la Visitation and boulevard Maisonneuve, will only be revealed to ticket holders shortly before the opening.
“It is an advertising weapon that works” and which is used, otherwise, by Banksy himself, continues Mr. Gauvin. And Banksy once wrote: “I use art to challenge the established order, but maybe I just use protest to promote my works. »
To the point where the former arts policeman Alain Lacoursière would not be surprised that Banksy himself is behind one or more of these unauthorized exhibitions. “This gentleman is spectacular. He makes big shows. “The art consultant recalls that in 2014, Banksy had participated, discreetly, with his kiosk, in an art fair in Central Park. He sold his prints there for US$60. Several had been unsold; the others later made the fortune of the auctioneers. “He could very well be behind this kind of exhibition while saying that he is not there, doing this kind of thing. »
Museum, sounds, flashes and lights
Jean-François Gauvin, he sees a difference between this exhibition and the known work of Banksy. With the spirit of the artist and his works. “The spectators who go to see Banksyland do not seek the same critical look that a museum would cast on its works. There, there will be just sound, light, flash, and the possibility of being rocked in colors and textures. »
“Are we using Banksy’s anti-capitalist works and message to make money? asks Mr. Gauvin. “Are we going to recognize his artistic and political message, or are we going to take our picture in front of a projection for the to post on his Instagram and say “I was there”? It’s a show, entertainment,amusement. And it works too: some days in Montreal are already sold out, and dates have been added.
The legal and the illegal
Is it legal to present a Banksy exhibition without the permission of the artist? “Legally, in Canada, I’m really not sure that their exhibition holds…” thinks François Le Moine, a lawyer specializing in arts law. “It seems they didn’t understand that we don’t have quite the same copyright here as in the United States…”
But to apply the Copyright Act, “the author must claim his moral rights”, that he lodges a complaint, specifies the director of the specialized firm Rules of the art.
“There is, in Canada, the right of exhibition, which does not exist almost anywhere else in the world. Only the copyright holder can authorize the exhibition. This is a provision added to the Act in 1988, for works created after that date. I don’t know if the promoter in the United States has checked that, because it’s a rather unique feature in the world, ”says Mr. Le Moine.
“The question posed by the Canadian law is technologically neutral. Do we cover an important part of the work? It is a qualitative test. You can see in a photo of Banksyland that we take over a substantial part of the flower thrower, even if we make a sculpture of it. Copyright must be respected even if a stencil is reproduced in sculpture, even if screen printing or graffiti is projected immersively.
But let’s repeat it: as long as Banksy does not file a complaint, the exhibition can go on quietly. And no law protects the visitor or the spectator from an exhibition that plays on the limits between true and false. Only owners of works and authors are protected.
“That said, if the artist wanted to assert his rights, it is in Quebec that he would have the best chance of stopping this exhibition. Here you can make seizures before judgment. »
Why is Banksy, who has already started legal proceedings at least in Europe, letting these exhibitions run, and not suing? Especially since he is no stranger to the courts. The question, posed to the artist’s official website, remained unanswered. Just like those posed to the organization behind Banksyland.