Street artist Banksy appears to have turned up unannounced at the Venice Biennale, and may have even been kicked out of one of the city’s most famous piazzas for running a stall without a permit.
Banksy posted a short video on his verified Instagram account showing a man with a series of paintings depicting a huge cruise ship looming over the Italian city, before local police appear to move him on.
“Setting out my stall at the Venice Biennale,” reads the post accompanying the video, in which the man’s face remains obscured throughout. “Despite being the largest and most prestigious art event in the world, for some reason I’ve never been invited.”
The paintings allude to the controversy surrounding overtourism in Venice, with cruise ships a highly visible part of the problem.
Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Sotheby's
A look at some of the recent work of the famously anonymous British graffiti artist Banksy. Banksy's "Love is in the Bin" is unveiled on October 12, 2018, at Sotheby's in London. Originally titled "Girl with Balloon," the canvas passed through a hidden shredder seconds after the hammer fell on October 5 at Sotheby's London Contemporary Art Evening Sale, making it the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction.
JASON SZENES/EPA-EFE
Banksy protested the incarceration of Zehra Dogan, a Turkish artist who was imprisoned last year over a painting.
WWW.BANKSY.CO.UK
"Civilian Drone Strike," revealed in London last September, targeted one of the world's largest arms fairs.
VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images
The original version of Banksy's artwork features a red balloon. The print offered to voters in the Bristol area showed a balloon colored like a Union Jack flag.
Elliot Masters
In May, elusive street artist Banksy revealed a new mural. The large-scale painting depicts a worker chipping away at one of the twelve stars on the European Union flag.
Oren Liebermann/ CNN
In March, Banksy revealed a large-scale installation in Bethlehem. Titled the Walled Off Hotel, the interactive artwork features nine guest rooms and a presidential suite.
Oren Liebermann/ CNN
Each room critiques the division between Israel and Palestine, and the hotel looks out to a 30-foot concrete wall, which has been described as the largest canvas in the world.
Courtesy Matt Stannard
In June 2016 elusive UK street artist Banksy painted this mural for students at a primary school in his hometown of Bristol, England. Students had named a house at their school for the artist, who surprised them with the mural when they returned from a holiday break. Here's a look at some other notable Banksy works.
Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images
A mural of a weeping woman, painted by the British street artist Banksy, is seen in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Wednesday, April 1. The mural was painted on a door of a house destroyed last summer during the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The owner of the house
said he was tricked into selling the door for the equivalent of $175, not realizing the painting was by the famously anonymous artist.
Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
A Palestinian child stands next to a Banksy mural of a kitten on the remains of a destroyed house in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in February 2015.
Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
A child in Beit Hanoun walks past a mural February 2015 that depicts children using an Israeli watchtower as a swing ride.
Courtesy Banksy
A Banksy mural depicting pigeons holding anti-immigration signs was destroyed by the local council in Clacton-on-Sea, England, in October 2014 after the council received complaints that the artwork was offensive.
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
A Banksy work appears at a youth center in Bristol, England, in April 2014. Called "
Mobile Lovers," it features a couple embracing while checking their cell phones. Members of the youth center took down the piece from a wall on a Bristol street and replaced it with a note saying the work was being held at the club "to prevent vandalism or damage being done." The discovery came shortly after another image believed to be by Banksy surfaced in Cheltenham, England.
Courtesy Banksy
"The Banality of the Banality of Evil" actually started out as a thrift store painting in New York City. Once altered by Banksy, who inserted an image of a Nazi officer sitting on a bench, it was re-donated to the store in October 2013, according to the
artist's site.
Jason Szenes/EPA/Landov
Banksy's art exhibit "Grim Reaper Bumper Car" sits on New York's Lower East Side in October 2013. The famously anonymous artist, whose paintings regularly go for six figures at auction houses around the world, said he was on a "residency on the streets of New York."
Joy Scheller/Barcroft Media /Landov
A Banksy piece covers the main entrance to Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in New York's Hell's Kitchen in October 2013.
UPI/John Angelillo /LANDOV
Banksy's replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza was made in Queens out of smashed cinder blocks.
Joy Scheller/Barcroft Media/Landov
Banksy's "Ghetto 4 Life" appeared in the Bronx in October 2013. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that Banksy was breaking the law with his guerrilla art exhibits, but the New York Police Department denied it was actively searching for him.
Joy Scheller/Barcroft Media /Landov
Banksy art is seen on the Upper West Side of New York in October 2013.
JUSTIN LANE /LANDOV
Banksy work in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized in broad daylight in October 2013.
Erik Pendzich/Rex USA
One of Banksy's pieces is this fiberglass sculpture of Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined in front of a Bronx McDonald's.
Daniel Pierce Wright/Getty Images
Graffiti depicting the Twin Towers popped up in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York in October 2013.
ANDREW GOMBERT/EPA/Landov
Banksy's
"Sirens of the Lambs" art installation tours the streets of Manhattan in October 2013. It was a fake slaughterhouse delivery truck full of stuffed animals.
JASON SZENES/EPA/LANDOV
A Banksy mural is seen on a wall in Queens. The quote is from the movie "Gladiator." It says, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
A woman poses with Banksy's painting of a heart-shaped balloon covered in bandages. The piece, in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, was defaced with red spray paint shortly after it was completed.
Bebeto Matthews/AP
A Banksy mural of a dog urinating on a fire hydrant draws attention
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
This installation, seen in October 2013, on the Lower East Side of New York, depicts stampeding horses in night-vision goggles. Thought to be a commentary on the Iraq War, it also included
an audio soundtrack.
JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images
Gallery assistants adjust Banksy's "Love Is in the Air" ahead of an auction in London in June 2013. The piece was sold for $248,776.
Jason LaVeris/Getty
"The Crayola Shooter" is found in Los Angeles in 2011. It shows a child wielding a machine gun and using crayons for bullets.
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Banksy murals popped up around New Orleans a day before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2008.
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
A silhouette of a child holding a refrigerator-shaped kite is seen on a wall in New Orleans in 2008.
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Graffiti on the side of a building in New Orleans shows an elderly person in a rocking chair under the banner, "No Loitering," in 2008.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
A scene titled "Chicken Nuggets," from Banksy's "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill," is seen in New York in 2008.
Dave Etheridge-Barnes/Getty Images
A man walks past a Banksy piece in London in 2006.
Paul Hartnett/PYMCA/Getty
A stenciled image of two policemen kissing is seen in London in 2005.
Huge numbers of visitors continue to strain the infrastructure of the city, and there have been calls to ban cruise ships in recent years.
The final moments of the video show the stallholder wheeling away his wares; behind him, one such ship towers over a row of gondolas.
Despite his apparent chagrin at the lack of an official invitation, it appears Banksy may have been keeping himself busy in Venice. A mural in the British artist’s style appeared on a wall in the city, showing a child holding a pink flare aloft.
While observers have speculated as to who painted it, Banksy has not claimed the artwork, nor has it appeared on his official Instagram.
It appeared as the eyes of the art world turned to Venice during the Biennale, which runs from May 11 to Nov. 24.
One of the most striking exhibits this year is the wreck of a boat on which hundreds of migrants died when it capsized and sank off the coast of Libya. The project, titled “Barca Nostra” (“Our boat”), is the work of Swiss-Icelandic artist Christoph Büchel.