Banksy-inspired hotel opens in Paris, replicating Bethlehem's Walled Off Hotel

An all Banksy-themed hotel is opening in Paris, a sort of unofficial copy of the Walled Off Hotel, the hotel Banksy opened in 2017 in Bethlehem, near the wall separating Israel from Palestine. The hotel will rent 20 rooms to its guests and will open on June 9.The idea comes from Belgian-Albanian entrepreneur Hazis Vardar, who heads several theaters throughout France, and his brother Alil Vardar, an actor. The idea of the two is to “make art accessible to the uninitiated” and to “theatricalize Banksy’s work,” as they explained to Le Journal de la Dimanche newspaper.

The hotel will open on the sidelines of the immersive show The World of Banksy, which was launched in 2019 in the Lafayette-Drouot space, a former garage in the 9th arrondissement of Paris: it has been extended until 2021 (despite Banksy listing it, on his official website, as a “fake” exhibition, but that probably matters little to fans of the British street artist). A show that has attracted 150,000 visitors so far is thus preparing to offer a space to sleep as well.

The Banksy-style hotel will find space in a building adjoining the former garage (it was leased in early 2020 by Vardar) and will be open not only to those who wish to stay overnight, but also to those who wish to visit (just pay a 6 euro surcharge over the ticket for the immersive show). Banksy fans will therefore be able to walk through the lobby with hunting trophies that have CCTV cameras instead of wild animal heads, visit rooms where copies of Banksy’s famous works hang as paintings, and even overlook a courtyard where one of the walls has been covered with concrete to recreate the West Bank wall, all decorated of course with reproductions of Banksy’s works.

“We worked on detailed photographs,” Hazis Vardar explained again to LJDD. “Of course, the spaces in our hotel are not the same, but we kept the spirit of the place. We theatricalized Banksy’s work.” Banksy fans, however, are divided: homage to the Bristol artist, or trivialization of one of his most acclaimed works? The debate is open...

Banksy-inspired hotel opens in Paris, replicating Bethlehem's Walled Off Hotel

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