Paris, Brussels, New York, Barcelona, and now… Saxon (VS). A permanent exhibition dedicated to the mysterious British artist Banksy will open on Thursday in the small Valais village. The project was initiated by two Belgian brothers, Hazis and Alil Vardar, who have already created several of these exhibitions in major cities around the world. Alil having recently taken over the management of the Saxon Casino, the brothers saw in Banksy the opportunity to “do something that will be talked about a lot”, explained Hazis on Wednesday in Le Journal de “Canal9”. And, despite the size of the Valais village in comparison to the other host cities of “The World of Banksy”, the initiators of the project saw things big: “It is the second largest exhibition in the world after New York” .
Concretely, around 120 of the famous murals by the anonymous artist will be presented at Saxon. Some have been reproduced at full size on the walls of the building, others in frames. A way, according to Hazis Vardar, to “conserve” the artist’s works, most of the originals having disappeared. As for the question of rights, Banksy’s paintings are not protected, since his identity is secret. But, whatever the case, “Banksy spoke out recently to validate what we are doing,” Hazis Vardar told our colleagues at “Nouvelliste”.
