Beach Boys-Banksy

This painting entitled Beach Boys was created by the famous street art artist Banksy. His art is a mixture of irony, irreverence, humor and often includes very clear messages like his interventions between Israel and Palestine. Through his actions, he campaigns for freedom, for justice, against war, famine and all the scourges caused by man.

Banksy founded in 2005 the Santa's Ghetto project for which he clandestinely created 9 stencil paintings on the separation wall between Israel and Palestine. Beach boys is part of this series of works aimed at denouncing the construction of the wall and giving hope to the Palestinian inhabitants.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict refers to the recurring conflict between Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East.

The 700-kilometer-long separation wall is a construction in the West Bank being built by Israel since the summer of 2002. The objective is to protect the Israeli population by physically preventing any intrusion of Palestinian terrorists into Israeli territory. For the Palestinian authorities, it is described as a "racist separation wall".

Opponents of the barrier call the construction "the wall of shame".

In order to protest against the wall, Banksy went to the Israeli-Palestinian border in 2005. He realized his frescoes in Palestinian territory under the stunned gaze of soldiers of the security forces who let him do it, guns pointed at his team.

On this wall, the artist has represented a trompe-l'oeil: a hole in the cracked wall reveals an idyllic landscape, composed of palm trees overlooking a beach of fine sand and a turquoise sea. This principle of trompe-l'oeil is widely used by Banksy in his paintings. These two spaces, the place of the work and the one represented in the work, are confronted. By opposing them, Banksy criticizes the presence of the wall and the right of everyone to hope for a bright future.

Two children are represented, looking towards the spectator. Unlike the landscape which is in color, they are painted in black and white, in an extremely contrasting way. They have a ghostly appearance. Both of them, one standing, the other kneeling, hold buckets and shovels, "essential" beach objects. But this beach is inaccessible to them, the hole allowing them to access it being much too high for them. Banksy represents two children imprisoned between a wall and a fence. He uses the technique of graffiti with stencil.

The project Santa's Ghetto is a message of hope dedicated to the civilian population. The works, although provocative, are not directly subject to controversy because they are non-violent and serve as a hymn to peace.

In his own way, Banksy cries out against injustice and makes people think. His work is recognized worldwide as a voice denouncing inequality, shouting loudly what millions of people think.

I think Beach boys is a committed work, which makes us think about the fate of Palestinians, like these two imprisoned boys who aspire to freedom. It makes us aware of the stakes of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Thus, I support Banksy's idea to denounce the injustice that Palestine is still suffering today.

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