Triszka Noelle J.

Fresto
AESTHET
20 February 2019

Exit through the Gift Shop

The mockumentary ‘​Exit through the Gift Shop​’ by Banksy showed an anti-essentialism
philosophy through his subject, Thierry Guetta. Thierry lived in L.A. as a Frenchman who went
around the world to film guerrilla street artists, including Banksy, the most elusive of them all. It
was a record of one man's camera obsession with stealthy street artists. Guetta is about to
make a documentary, artists like Shepard Fairey, Invader and even Banksy allow Guetta to film
as they climb buildings, temper with walls and create art as they leave a little piece of their own
in different places around the world.

"I wanted to make a movie about street art, so I wanted to get as much info as possible," he
says. "It was like more than any drugs to anybody. It was obsession. I like to capture those
people because I thought it was nice what they were doing. You know, they really believe it.
You know, they really loved it."

When Guetta finally enjoys meeting Banksy, he becomes his tour guide around the city
of Los Angeles, where they both start to work on Banksy's show. He sends Guetta to create his
own art after Banksy discovers that Guetta has no real intention of editing any of the footage
and that he is also a lazy filmmaker. Guetta’s video filming escapades was just a mere hobby
without any purpose. Philosophical non - essentialism is the lack of belief in the essence of any
particular thing, idea or metaphysical entity. His videotapes were just stored upon boxes on
boxes and on boxes. Some were labeled and some were not as to it did not matter since he
won’t make use of it. Banksy took over the camera at some point and Thierry became the
subject. How the flip - flop happened and what happened next is the movie's story. Thierry
soon takes the name of "Mr. Brainwash" and tries to conquer L.A. With a massive exhibition of
paintings and sculptures in street art by Mr. Brainwash, he then succeeds in organizing his own
art show entitled "Life is Beautiful." Without essentialism, a shape will be just a shape as well as
a thing will nothing me more than a thing and can’t be considered as an art. If these shapes will
rely on art theories, it then will be a part of the artworld.