Banksy’s new exhibition is a typically daring and off-kilter stunt for the artist – and it may be his biggest and boldest idea yet. The British provocateur is opening a crappy parody of a theme park in Weston-super-Mare, which the artist describes as an “unfashionable British seaside town frequented by low-income families.” According to its website, Dismaland features 18 attractions, including art galleries, a shitty castle, a circus tent, an “oil caliphate themed crazy golf course,” and a portrait artist who draws the back of your head (“surprisingly revealing”). This twisted theme park is actually a curated art show featuring renowned artists like Damien Hirst and Jenny Holzer (whose ‘truisms’ will be read aloud over the park’s speaker system).
The venue is the deserted Tropicana site, which formerly housed a large outdoor swimming pool. In Britain, they call this type of pool park a ‘lido.’
When the folks at Juxtapoz asked Banksy what he hopes visitors will take away from the Dismaland experience, he quipped, “A souvenir programme, three T-shirts and a mug. Each.”
The park is open from August 22nd to September 27th. See tons of photos at The Independent. Better book your flight to Weston-super-Mare now.
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