(21 May 2024)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York – 16 May 2024
1. Push in on “I Love New York” mural
2. Various pans of Banksy artwork
3. Pull out on framed artwork
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Haziz Vardar, Founder of Banksy Museum:
“Everybody knows Banksy, but nobody knows his face. He’s very important. So, the idea of creating a museum about Banksy came like six years ago, and I said, for this artist, I’m a fan and a collector, we have to do something special. All his artwork are disappearing, stolen or whitewashed by the municipalities. So, I started the work of having all the photography and everything.”
5. Pull out on “Mobile Lovers” to text wall
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Haziz Vardar, Founder of Banksy Museum:
“He’s like a superhero, you know, we all know Batman, Spiderman, we don’t know -or Superman, we don’t know the guy who’s inside. And Banksy, he’s probably the same phenomenon for the people. And of course, he’s making a scan of the world just so precisely and in a so nice way, you can only love his art.”
7. Push in on “You Loot We Shoot”
8. Pan from “Robot and Barcode” to “Waiting in Vain”
9. Push in on “Umbrella Girl”
10. SOUNDBITE (English) William Meade, Executive Director of Banksy Museum:
“I think one of the beauty, beautiful things about not knowing who Banksy is that you don’t project onto him. This art speaks for itself. This is simplistic, but it’s very powerful. The juxtapositions and the sense of humor are something that, you know that may make the audience work. And then when you are – when you work for it, then you own it, then you’re part of it.”
11. Pan from “Simpsons” to “Girl on Stool”
12. Wide of “Flower Thrower”
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Haziz Vardar, Founder of Banksy Museum:
“Of course, the approval of somebody you don’t know is very complicated to have it. But I remember we just opened in Paris three months after, because we were explaining to everybody that it’s just re-creation, the original doesn’t exist anymore. He (Banksy) had a statement on Instagram that said ‘I will always allow the guys to make copies to preserve the art. So I think we were the only one making copies of re-creation. So I think it was for us. Maybe not, but I hope for us.”
14. Medium viewer on bench
15. Pan of refugee’s area
15. Zoom in “Floral Vomit”
STORYLINE:
The Banksy Museum recently opened in New York, and it boasts the world’s largest collection of anonymous artists’ life-sized murals.
The museum’s founder, Haziz Vardar says the idea came to him pre-pandemic as a means to preserve the artist’s ephemeral works.
“All his artworks are disappearing, stolen or whitewashed by the municipalities,” Vardar said.
Vardar believed that if he did nothing, the works would disappear forever.
So, he assembled a team of guerilla artists who had some conditions before agreeing to take on the project.
According to Vardar, the artists would stay anonymous and not create anything for sale.
“When we finish here, we just destroy everything,” Vardar said of the New York museum.
The museum’s executive director William Meade expressed the magic of Banksy.
“I think one of the beauty, beautiful things about not knowing who Banksy is that you don’t project onto him. This art speaks for itself. This is simplistic, but it’s very powerful,” Mead said.
While Vardar cannot address if Banksy has seen the museum, he does recall an Instagram post from a Paris account showing where Banksy expressed approval of those copying his work for prosperity.
“I think we were the only one making copies for re-creation. So, I think it was for us. Maybe not, but I hope for us.”
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