Not everything you may see in the context of a huge art event such as the Venice Biennale is worth of the art label. In some cases the way a piece is showcased, the place where it is showcased or our personal tastes may for example prompt us to dislike what critics unanimously consider a fantastic work of art. In others, the problem is not the way an artwork is displayed, but the actual artwork in itself that may be too obscure, conceptual or difficult to understand and end up being filed in our memory under the "bad art" category. In the same way, it is not so rare to maybe spot much better art in rather unlikely places such as the streets.
That's exactly what happened to passers-by two weeks ago, during the press days of the Venice Biennale, when an anonymous stall holder in a scarf and a bucket hat stopped in St Mark's Square and set up a stall with a series of nine paintings in gold frames.
The peculiarity stood in the fact that, when put one next to the other, the paintings composed a rather large puzzle-like image of a monstrous cruise ship in the Grand Canal surrounded by gondolas. Imagine a pastiche of a Canaletto painting such as "The Entrance to the Grand Canal" and a modern digital photograph of one of the huge ships docking in the canals in Venice, causing damages to its foundations, and you get the idea.
The witty title of the artwork was "Venice in Oil", a reference to the technique employed for the paintings and to the fact that the cruise ships pollute the city and its waters.
Passers-by stopped, some commented saying that it was much better than what they saw at the Biennale, others nodded in silence. Even a cat seemed interested and intently stared at the artwork.
Then two local policemen arrived and asked the stall holder to remove his artworks as he didn't have a permit. The stall holder packed up his things and went away. Shame that nobody realised they were witnessing a street performance by British street artist Banksy (was that the real Banksy in disguise?). Seven months after he Banksy-ed Sotheby by remotely shredding the "Girl with Balloon" canvas, the artist struck again in Venice.
Banksy posted the video of this peculiar Venetian adventure (he exhibited his paintings in via Garibaldi, in front of the Prigioni Vecchie and in St. Mark's Square) a few days ago on his official Instagram page, accompanied by an ironic message "Setting out my stall at the Venice Biennale. Despite being the largest and most prestigious art event in the world, for some reason I've never been invited."
It is a crime Banksy was never invited to the Biennale, but this year it was an even bigger missed opportunity considering the theme of the 58th International Art Exhibition, the ancient Chinese curse "May You Live In Interesting Times", chosen by curator Ralph Rugoff. Indeed Banksy would have been the perfect artist to represent the rather bizarre times we are already living in.
Yet that wasn't all, Banksy also posted on his official Instagram page the picture of a graffiti that some people had already suspected as made by him. The graffiti (in San Pantalon, in the Dorsoduro area of the city) represents a migrant boy in a safety vest holding a pink flare.
Ironic and fun, controversial and bitter, Banksy's interventions in Venice were clever and poignant, hinting at the destruction of the environment and at the fragile beauty of Venice, but also at the migrant debate.
You wonder if, after his performance in the street and his mural, Banksy went back to Britain or if he stayed for a few more days in Italy. Deep down you wish he extended his art holiday and maybe left a few of his witty graffiti also as in other places and cities, maybe as messages to the current Italian far right government and to the anti-migrant fascist Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini (there are quite a few multi-cultural schools in Italy that are going through rather difficult times with racism spreading and parents reluctant to enroll their kids in schools with high percentages of migrant children because of Salvini's aggressive messages against migrants, and maybe the number of kids enrolled in these schools would be higher if only Banksy would spread some graffiti magic on their walls…).
Shame, though, many people in the art business and most journalists missed Banksy's performance (or maybe didn't notice it?). Maybe we didn't pass near Banksy's stall, or maybe our eyes and minds were so focused on the grand Biennale that we didn't notice Banksy's bitter yet irresistible irony. You marvel, though, at the fact that Banksy turned up unannounced at the Venice Biennale and didn't even have some sort of invitation that allowed him to visit the Arsenale and the Giardini. That's bizarre if you think that during the press days everybody seems to have a press pass. Well, everybody but Banksy.
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