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Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel opened earlier this month in Bethlehem. And it’s a trip! After reading this interview in which he spoke in detail about his artistic vision for the project, and seeing the photographs of the project, I was entranced. It’s both a powerful political statement and funny as hell. But dark-funny. It’s a send-up of Occupation, a sly, devastating satiric evisceration of Israel’s policies.
And yes, it’s a real, functioning hotel, beautifully decorated. You can book a room and live within a work of art. A pretty amazing opportunity.
Pay special attention to some of the highlights I noticed in these photographs:
- The chimp bell boy in full regalia chained to the bars at the front door
- The picture of the lion and the lamb with the lion suitably obscured or effaced by graffiti.
- A mock European domestic scene of a home with a thatched roof…about to be demolished by an IDF bulldozer
- Graphic art as TV screen displaying Palestinian woman (in shades!) throwing stones
- Art in a wire cage
- A hotel room featuring a telescope with a perfect view of…the Separate Wall
- An art work hanging above a bed featuring an Israeli soldier and Palestinian militant engaged in a pillow fight
- A bedroom decorated in blood-red decor with an image on the wall of a bandaged heart enveloped in barbed wire
- The lounge with art displayed on the wall…consisting of slingshots, surveillance cameras, and cherubs in gas masks
- A classical bust in the library…masked and shrouded in tear gas
- A typical European traveler enjoying tea at her table…overlooking an Israeli watchtower
- Jesus looks up beseechingly from a European painting…at Israel drones hovering ominously overhead
The hotel website answers a series of important questions about the project.
Many Palestinians are much less enthousiastic about the project, many strong reactions on Twitter, and to be honest, I agree: I think there’s a huge amount of paternalism in Banksy’s comments on his project: he wants it to be a place where Israelis and Palestinians can meet … did he ask what the Palestinian BDS movement think about that ?
On Middle East Eye: “Banksy’s West Bank hotel causes anger among some Palestinians” by Sheren Khalel.
@ Deir Yassin: I can understand that art can become a bit like a sociology/anthropolgy experiment with the natives if it’s not sensitive. The artistic statement becomes more important than the actual people suffering.
But the benefit is that an international art figure will draw a new public to the cause. At least that’s the hope.
I also think his art related to the Separation Wall has dramatized it in the eyes of the world more than any other factor.
I really doubt many Israeli Jews are heading to Bethlehem for meetings at the hotel. So I doubt much normalization will be happening there.
“I can understand that art can become a bit like a sociology/anthropolgy experiment with the natives if it’s not sensitive. The artistic statement becomes more important than the actual people suffering.”
Yes, that’s exactly what many Palestinian activists have expressed: a little like war zone tourism in Irak.
Anyway, we’ll see, also that Bethlehem’s hotel industry already suffers from the occupation, such a the Jacir Hotel.