Banksy re-wrote the rule of that peculiar human expression we call art. Five years passed since his raid in Venice, the moment his Migrant Child appeared on the wall of a condemned building between Campo San Pantalon and Campo Santa Margherita. That very wall sits by the canal, with water touching and washing its surface every day, making it wash away just like the piece or reality portrayed. Exhibition Banksy. Painting Walls, to open at M9 Museum in Mestre on February 23, builds upon Banksy’s artistic foray in Venice to try and decode public art as both necessary and other. Meetings and guided bike tours from Venice to Mestre will be offered during the exhibition’s opening to feel at one’s feet the relationship between the two cities, which is the focal point of M9’s new director Serena Bertolucci’s plan of action.

Banksy, Robot Boy. Courtesy M9 – Museo del ‘900