Banksy is a name that many people are acquainted with his name and work even if they are not interested in street art or public space. I want to make the suggestion of Exit Through the Gift Shop for the one, who want to get closer with the story and to know the artistic practice of street artists. Banksy character has got into the life of most of us with his work Wall and Piece - the resistance fighter, who is getting ready to throw the flowers in his hand-  the subtext of this work was so us and so from us that we couldn't forget what we have seen; we searched for every public space art named itself Banksy. Rather than these, he turned out to be a genius whom we cannot get any information about. This man, who ravished me, who has the instinct to give the works I produce as a present to whomever asks despite the insistence of people around me on I need to make a living out of these, by writing ‘’copyright is for losers’’ on the first page of his book, where the information section about the book is, also wrote on the back cover of the same book ‘’There is no way you’re going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover’ and signed this as the Metropolitan police department.

​Starting his career as a free drawing graffiti artist in 1990s, Banksy has embraced stencil technique in 2000s. His anti-war, anti-corporation and anti-capitalist works contain mice, British police, soldiers, Mona Lisa, intelligently used sayings, gas masks and he questions art, art institutions, concept of street and white cube in general. We can actually come across in most of the places in the world with his works, which comes up everywhere in London and Bristol, including museums.

I want to make a quotation from Richard Jinman's words from the The Guardian:

"At the Brooklyn Museum, it was a portrait of a colonial-era soldier holding an aerosol can and standing in front of anti-war graffiti.  The Museum of Modern Art gained a Warhol-style print of a can of cream-of-tomato soup bearing the Tesco label and the Metropolitan Museum of Art was left with a small, gold-framed portrait of a woman wearing a gas mask. When he reached the Museum of Natural History, the man hung a glass-encased beetle modified with jet fighter wings, missiles and a satellite dish.

Startled officials at the Met discovered their new painting on March 13, "within minutes" of it being hung in the American wing. It took the Brooklyn until March 16 and Moma until March 17 to find and remove the unwanted art.

But who was the bearded man and what was he up to?

The mystery was solved when a series of photographs was posted on the street art website woostercollective.com this week purporting to show the British graffiti artist, Banksy, committing the act.

The underground artist claims he disguised himself as a "British pensioner" to carry out his act of subterfuge. In a statement accompanying the photographs, Banksy said: "This historic occasion has less to do with finally being embraced by the fine art establishment and is more about the judicious use of a fake beard and some high strength glue.  They're good enough to be in there, so I don't see why I should wait." ‘’

The value of art productions is a concept that has been argued for centuries. It is a subject, which emerges from the questions like who, which facts, in which percentage determines this value, what is art, and is also a subject matter even the experts, who spend years in global art environments, doubt sometimes. What is it that makes a work an art; determines its price? Or else does the price of a production make it an appreciated artwork? Is it enough for an artwork to be accepted by art professionals, a museum, or a collector wanting to have that production, or else is it to have a specified economical value and "belong" to a person/institution in order to have a art work brand? All these questions become nonsense when it comes to public space art. Because, "artworks" that we come across in public areas belong to the city and its people and it cannot be estimated. Free from copy right, they became ours. Banksy's work is staying on a ground that is out of this definition since his works created a value within itself. He created a value conflict with his works that got into world's leading collections with a million dollars, dismantled from walls by unknown people and put into auctions.  This infrastructure, which was born initially as an anti art, has transformed its own value and art market's standard of judgement.

After all this subtext, I want to talk about what is happening today.  We came across with this project called Better Out Than In in Banksy's banksyny.com website which was starting that there would be one art production done everyday within the scope of New York city. As an individual, who has never come across a live Banksy’s work, I accept that I can me more excited than them.

The first day we met The Street is in Play in Manhattan. This is a stencil showing two boys on top of each other and trying to get the spray paint on a sign saying ‘’graffiti is a crime’’. Also, if you go to the website, you can listen to the audio guides, which are mocking the audio guides in the museums, talking about the works and technique in a humorous way. Dear residents of New York, you can also listen to the same message by calling the number sprayed next to the work. In the up coming days we have found works that is giving a Broadway spirit to random graffitis, an abattoir van called Sirens of the Lambs filled with screaming stuffed animal toys travelling around the butchery part of New York, a broken heart that keeps on flying with Band-Aids over Brooklyn, a black and white fight scene, which we could have watched with a very sweet voice add-on. It has been shared in banksyny.com with the note, which says that he is being blamed that he is using cheap quotations and replying this with a saying from Kelly Rowland; his work in Queens containing a quotation from the movie Gladiator got into our lives on 14th October.

Shoeshine and the booth selling Banksy’s work were the most influential ones. Shoeshine involves a fibreglass replica of Ronald McDonald, which is the most replicated character after Jesus statue and is the mascot of McDonald's fast food chain, and a real person, who is shining its shoes under the crushing glances of the replica. The work, which will be on the pavement of a different McDonalds restaurant from 16th October onwards, is needless to say, is examining the capitalism and heavy work concepts by inserting it into our lives. The booth in the middle of Central Park, in front of which an old man is waiting for and all signed by Banksy and only 60 dollar stencil works for only 60 dollars., is another fun subject  It is really hard to believe, but it didn't draw attention. Here we watch yet another example of value conflict. In a booth for 60 dollars, on a street free from copy right, or else in an auction for a million dollars. Let the history decide. 

In the mean time, I advise you to visit stealbanksyny.com, of which I am almost certain Banksy is done this website and in which puts up his works for sale with the slogan "’Get it before MoMA gets it!’’ and shows Banksy’s work on a map. It is also worth to mention the existence of group of people who have surrounded the last work of Banksy and ask for 5 dollars from people who wish to see it. You can see the works, which is TrustoCorp themed and defining Banksy as a multi millionaire and criticise him still doing anarchist work, from here. We expect new Banksy works that will come out in the up coming few days.

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