In the old Karstadt building on Ludwigsstraße in Mainz, a red and gold elephant as a space-filling sculpture on the third floor draws attention to an extraordinary exhibition.

“The Mystery of Banksy: A Genius Mind” is the title of the show, which has been on view since the beginning of October in the “Lulu” store for short, which is understood as an homage to the now very famous but still unknown sprayer, graphic artist and painter named Banksy want to become.

According to the announcement, it should give visitors "a comprehensive overview and insight into the overall work of the genius and exceptional artist" by mid-January.

Markus Schug

Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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The exhibition, with around 150 works reproduced or compiled for this purpose - including graffiti, photographs, sculptures, video installations and prints on canvas, fabric, aluminum and Plexiglas - was previously on view in Munich and Berlin. At the moment it is also shown in Linz and Dresden at the same time. Since this is an "unauthorized exhibition", those responsible have to do without the consent of the British street artist. There are understandable reasons for this and it fits the concept.

On the one hand, this approach corresponds to the motto "Copyright is for losers", which the mysterious Anonymous himself gave, as the organizers of the exhibition, the Passau production company Cofo Entertainment and Livemacher GmbH from Besigheim, cite as a justification and as a salvation of honor. In any case, nobody officially knows who the “King of the Street Artists” actually is and who is behind the name Banksy: a 45 year old man, presumably, whom former comrades from his birthplace Bristol claim to have known as Robin Banks. But maybe it is also a woman or even an artist collective who drove the illegal night work to perfection with a few spray cans and stencils.

At least since the sensational auction at Sotheby's, when the recently sold work "Girl with Balloon" began to destroy itself at the push of a button and with the help of a shredder built into the frame in 2018, Banksy has been a household name - and worth the money. What the latest sales campaign of the meanwhile half-cut and renamed work "Love is in the Bin" has just impressively proven: In this case, the hammer fell a few days ago for a record price of more than 18.5 million pounds.

The fact that Banksy's criticism of the art market and, above all, of the commercialization of art does not really fit in with the Mainz special show with an attached sales shop, is probably one of the reasons that many art lovers may save themselves the trip to the old Karstadt department store. At least a donation box has been set up in which money is collected for the sea rescue supported by the socially critical artist. According to a survey by the organizer, those who have come so far have expressed almost 100 percent enthusiasm: Their expectations have been met, if not even exceeded, it is said. Because where else is it possible to admire the works of the street art specialist, which are actually distributed across different locations, in a single location?

Hardly any of the common Banksy motifs are missing in the commissioned works, which were realized by specially hired street artists on the concrete walls of the old department store that is about to be demolished: neither the girl with the red balloon, the child with a life jacket and a sea torch, or the monkeys in the Parliament, nor the street fighter throwing a bouquet of flowers. Because some of what is currently being shown in Mainz has long since been removed from the original location and has thus disappeared forever, the exhibition “in honor of the art icon”, which lives on well-made copies, has its justification.

Whether the total work of art “Banksy”, curated by the young Englishwoman Virginia Jean, who lives in Berlin, is worth 18 or 19 euros for an adult visitor, depending on the day of the week, is up to you to decide for yourself.

At the end of the tour, which among other things leads past a telephone booth in agony and a London underground in lockdown mode, thanks to a number of video contributions, those interested should know a lot more about the influential and probably well-paid street artist with the ingenious ideas.

Just not who Banksy actually is.