The framed portrait of a black silhouette and a candle whose flame burns the American flag. That’s how Bansky, the mysterious English artist considered one of the greatest exponents of street art, decided to show his solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, during an international protest day for the murder of African American George Floyd.
“It’s not their problem.”
The artist published the work yesterday by the same artist on his Instagram profile with a message:
“At first, I thought I should just shut up and listen to black people about this issue. But why would I do that? It’s not their problem. It’s mine. People of colour have being failed by the system. Like a broken pipe flooding the apartment of the people living downstairs. This faulty system is making their life a misery, but it’s not their job to fix it. They can’t; no one will let them in the apartment upstairs. This is a white problem. And if white people don’t fil it, someone will have to come upstairs and kick the door in.“
The work, the latest in chronological order after the one depicting an anti-Covid superhero nurse, is a clear stance in favor of the movement born against the abuses of the police against African Americans. This adds to the positions of the American cultural institutions, appeared on the boards of their social profiles these last days. The MoMA on June 2 darkened his Facebook page in mourning until the declaration of the president of Princeton University Christopher L. Eisgruber on the importance of addressing the awareness that “the long legacy of racism in this nation continues to damage and destroy the lives of black people“.
The Art world for George Floyd
In the wake of the global events that are moving to the cry of Black Lives Matter, even the art world is reacting to the last breath of George Floyd. The street art is now more than ever an essential, useful communication channel. It is actually dusting off its original function. That of being able to speak to citizens through the use of roads, walls, windows.
From Germany to Syria, from Spain to the United States, from Belgium to Palestine. All over the world street art has paid homage to George Floyd, the forty-six-year-old man killed during a police detention last Monday, May 25 in Minneapolis.
The death of George Floyd in the hands of the police sparked a devastating wave of protest across the country. It also aroused the interest of urban artists around the world. The phrase #icantbreathe then became a hashtag and a cry of protest against police violence against African American citizens, which inexplicably continue to happen.