What if Banksy was actually Robbie Banks? This is what the artist himself
seems to say in an interview filmed for the BBC in 2003 and never
broadcast, unearthed in a podcast this week.
It is a recording on MiniDisc media, on which is written "Banksy hint
17.07.03". It seems to be the key to one of the greatest mysteries in
contemporary art: the identity of Banksy. In a podcast episode dedicated
to the story of the famous anonymous street artist, released on Tuesday,
the BBC broadcasts the recording of an interview in which we can hear
the voice of the artist, and even this one who declines his identity.
According to the host of the podcast, James Peak, it was a certain
"Nigel", who is in fact Nigel Wrench, a former arts journalist at the BBC,
who contacted him to pass on this tape. from an interview carried out in
2003 for Radio 4 but which was never broadcast. According to the
podcast, the interview was carried out at the time of an exhibition by the
artist in London, in which we already found his favorite themes. From this exhibition entitled "Turf War" An archive from the ITV channel had
already been released, on which a man identified as Bansky spoke in
front of the camera.
In this interview, Banksy talks about vandalism as art and says he "is not
here to apologize ", responds to the political, even anarchist, side of his
work. "I believe it's my right to paint, it's everyone's right to paint", said -
he. There is already talk of his distrust of the art world. And his voice
matches the one we hear in the ITV report.
"It's Robbie"
According to Nigel, Banksy explained that he would not be present at his
own opening, explaining that when you do graffiti, you cannot "stand
stand next to his works by extracting and shaking people's hands (...) It's
more interesting: if you don't show yourself never in public, then you are
a character, you can mean different things to different people,” he said
then, justifying his anonymity.
But above all, the episode broadcasts (after having wondered for a long
time whether to do it or not, according to the host) the very beginning of
the interview, before the first question, when the journalist does the
sound tests and asks the artist if he can call him Robert Banks, the name
which had been given in "The Independent" a few weeks earlier. "It's
Robbie", replies Banksy. "I'm a BBC journalist, I need the person's real
name. For me, that's a compelling reason," he says, explaining that what
interests him is not just the artist stopped him from saying his name, but
simply took it back by asking her to call him "Robbie." "I have no reason
to believe he lied", said Nigel Wrench.
In a previous episode of this podcast, the BBC also revealed another
sound of the artist's voice, this time recorded on American radio. And as
Banksy faces justice in a trial, it seems his secret identity is under more
threat than ever... although, once his name is known, his face will remain
a mystery.
Seen on France Info.
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