Exit through the gift shop

I just finished watching the film Exit through the gift shop. It was probably one of the best films I watched this year. While I, my boyfriend and another friend of ours laughed at the eccentricity - some would say even megalomania- and bizarre word choices (my personal favourites: "behind my expectations" and "brainwash your face") of Thierry Guetta, the film gave us also something to talk about. Namely: What is art?


I haven't studied art per se and I don't claim to know much about it, apart from the fact that whatever moves me or gives me food for thought, qualifies as art in my book. And that is exactly what happened with this film and its main protagonist: The little French guy with an abundance of energy and the balls (or insanity) to follow his vision for no reason other than he has to (like he absolutely has to film EVERYTHING).

Seems to me, that in the case of Mr. Brainwash, an artist is not someone who wants to say something or provoke emotions using pictures, installations, words or mere paint, rather than a person who swallows up what others have been doing for years out of passion or conviction, digests it and then throws it all up again in all directions possible while promoting himself as the next best thing in the art world.

5POINTZ street art, Queens

And here comes the question I ask myself: Is art still art, when what is behind it, is just a machine of marketing, copying what has already been done and employing people to do all the work for you, for the sole purpose of producing a show?

I truly don't know. I guess the part with copying is understandable to some extent. I genuinely believe that there is practically NOTHING that hasn't been done or said already and it all boils down to finding new ways to express one's self after absorbing all the existing information.

I guess what got to me was the fact that in the case of Mr. Brainwash, an entire art-show was produced in a mass production assembly-line manner, from people who were just given orders, the artist barely doing something himself.

You could say, that not everyone could have actually filtered the images they had been filming, as Mr. Guetta did, in the course of 5 years and re-produce them in a manner that simulated an original piece of art work, but what irritated me was the motivation of the artist, which was along the lines of waking up and deciding to make an art-show. There was namely not much behind it...

I respect Thierry Guetta for the fact that he followed his vision with all he had and became successful in what he did. But, I have to question the real soul of it, the big picture behind it, the motivation of the artist; and in the end, I guess that has to count for something.