Banksy’s Dismaland Theme Park Offers Unnerving Trailer
Although tickets for Banksy’s dystopian theme park Dismaland were all scooped up in an instant, the street artist has thankfully offered a tour of his interactive new exhibit with this commercial spoofing destination vacations. The ad for the “bemusement park” follows a family of four on their adventures to the Somerset, England’s Weston-super-Mare exhibit, which will run through September 27th.
Dubbed “the happiest place on Earth,” a tour of Dismaland reveals it to be a downtrodden theme park featuring rides and amusements that comment on race relations, illegal immigration, tabloid culture and heightened surveillance and security. The commercial also makes stops at the park’s Giant Pin Wheel, Jeffrey Archer Memorial Fire Pit and Banksy’s Mediterranean Boat Ride.
“This is a theme park like no other,” the narrator says. “Dismaland, a place where all your dreams come true.” The Banksy-curated theme park also features works by dozens of artists like Damien Hirst, Jenny Dozier, Nettie Wakefield and the KLF’s Jimmy Cauty. Additionally, Dismaland will host a series of concerts throughout its run, with Run the Jewels (who Banksy recently interviewed), Massive Attack, Kate Tempest, Peanut Butter Wolf and Pussy Riot among the acts to perform at the bemusement park in the coming weeks.
“If you’re the kind of person who feels jaded by the over-corporate blandness that passes for family light entertainment, then this is the bespoke leisure opportunity that will connect with your core brand dynamic,” Banksy said recently in an interview with The Guardian. “The advantage of putting art in a small seaside town is you’re only competing with donkeys. I think a museum is a bad place to look at art; the worst context for art is other art.”