Exit Through the Gift Shop – an Analysis

A summary of the documentary before you go on to read what my take is:

The story of how an eccentric French shop-keeper and amateur film-maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world’s most infamous graffiti artists at work. – Written by Sundance Film Festival

Exit through the Gift Shop, a thought-provoking documentary, shows how Thierry Guetta becomes an artist overnight; how he becomes a brand himself. I find a lot of similarities between Thierry as the owner of a vintage clothing store and Thierry as Mr.Brainwash. He buys clothes at a cheap rate, gives them a brand name and sells it to his customers at high rates. The customers buy the clothes just for the name tag it carries. Similarly, people appreciate and accept his art just for the brand name and not for what the art contains in its depths. Advertising culture can be associated with this. People are compelled to buy what advertisers offer although they see through the products. This is because of the culture that is built in them; the culture to buy a product for its name and not the value.

This documentary is a strong representation of hegemony and counter hegemony in our society. By trying to follow the footsteps of Banksy, Thierry is reflecting a hegemonic culture. Banksy has tried to influence people, who are not artists, to love art, where Thierry is just one example. Many other people stop and stare that the graffiti made by Banksy, thereby taking in graffiti as part of their culture. What Banksy has done is make people in his city aware of graffiti and ultimately appreciate it; he made graffiti a ‘natural’ and common culture, widely accepted by everyone else. Although people accepted the culture, they were not sure if everyone can be another Banksy. It remained an accepted culture, but not a practiced one. Even those who did not love art, started to see graffiti as a creative art form because in the culture industry, the only way to survive is by fitting in.

Thierry, by starting to love the graffiti culture, promotes himself as Banksy’s huge admirer and as a person appreciated by Banksy himself. He promotes himself as a normal person who began loving this form of art, thereby ‘countering’ the culture promoted by Banksy. Thierry makes people feel like anybody can become a graffiti artist; you don’t have to ‘know’ art for that. The people, who initially thought that graffiti are only made by those who are rebellious and disagreeing, came to think of this form of art as one in which anybody can be a part of.

Thierry developed into a brand so quickly that his successes or failures couldn’t even be consumed by him. He sold himself overnight to the people who believed him to be the one among them; a person who does something for the love of it. But looking closely, it seems like Thierry doesn’t actually know where he is going or what he is doing. From a man who sold clothes in a boutique, he became a highly acclaimed graffiti artist. Clearly he is not as artistic as Bansky or as thoughtful as Space Invader. Yet, he became so popular in no time. How?

First of all, the street art culture was imprinted in the minds of the people as a symbol of protest and power. The people thought that graffiti artists were people who were strong enough to voice out what they thought was wrong. In the public’s opinion, the street artists were quite mysterious because most for them did not reveal their identities, such as Bansky.  Thierry took advantage of the cultural phenomenon that is graffiti and of the fact that the public believe street artists to be mysterious, and revealed his identity to them. Bansky’s insecurity towards Thierry’s art was showcased by the media and people obviously bought it. The media made the public think that if there was someone who made the renowned Bansky insecure through his art, then that person must be of some significance. This is again with reference to the first paragraph where I have mentioned that people buy something not for the value but for the name it has. The media did the same; it sold to the public what it knew they would buy. The media sold the public an idea that Thierry is an upcoming graffiti artist who is as good as or even better than Banksy. The entire population who bought that idea was filtered by an existing culture and was branded by a seller which is the media here.

Thierry did not become a brand all by himself. In spite of all his efforts of getting the attention of the public, it was Bansky and the media that made Thierry into brand. It was Banksy’s comments which triggered the thoughts of people. To come to think of it, it looks like Banksy was in fact a part of this whole counter hegemony movement which Thierry intentionally or unintentionally activated. From what I saw, Banksy knew all along that Thierry would not do well as an artist but he still made him a key to change the existing cultural hegemony, to bring attention to graffiti as an art form, as a whole. To put it plainly, Thierry was a part of an extravagant play but without a script. In this entire process neither did Thierry know that he was becoming a brand/an image nor did the public realize that they were all players in this whole hegemony-counter hegemony act.

This brings us to think that although Thierry might have thought that he was a self-made brand, he failed to understand all the external factors that made him into a brand. These external factors are the cultures that are embedded in the society. Also, it hints us that anybody can become a brand if they want to, because in this world, we all need somebody to look up to and it doesn’t matter who that somebody is.  Whether this strange idea is a culture or what we believe is culture, is unknown.

Watch the documentary here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/