The artist who brought us a decrepit amusement park for the whole family to turn their brains to mush in is back with his latest dystopian escape. Banksy has followed up Dismaland with a new large-scale interactive form of protest art situated in the West Bank in Bethlehem. It’s a fully functioning hotel called Walled Off that conveniently overlooks the Israeli West Bank barrier — the wall separating Palestinian territories from Israel that Donald Trump so often commends — and features rooms fit for a “corrupt head of state” with some even using “surplus items from an Israeli military barracks.” It also features an art gallery curated by Dr. Housni Alkhateeb Shehada and a museum with an “animated history of the region, military pornography, and original beach sculpture from Gaza” curated by Essex University. The hotel’s selling point: It’s got the “worst view of any hotel in the world.” Of course, that’s not even the most interesting part.
Like Banksy’s last project, this will also feature performances from artists, albeit not technically as up close. Every night in the piano bar, musicians ranging from Trent Reznor, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Hans Zimmer will somehow perform prerecorded original scores for the hotel from a remote-controlled baby grand piano. Massive Attack’s 3D will kick it off when the hotel opens on March 11. It’s a strange concept to grasp, so allow the visual aid of Elton John playing from afar while the piano’s keys move spookily in sync blow your mind. And rest assured this place is definitely haunted.
