Banksy Détournement
Guy Debord, in his 1957 essay Towards a Situationalist International, proposes a radical departure away from art as we know it (or knew it?) back then. Debord states that everything that happens, in architecture, atmospheres, meetings, etc., needs to be viewed as an opportunity to increase humanity’s livingness. To exemplify this point, in his ideal future he states that painters will no longer be painters; rather, they’ll be situationalists who live their lives towards the proper emotional fulfillment who happen to paint. Essentially, Debord is suggesting that we do not have to suffer the mundane, the drone, or the boring. Emotional heights can be reached by studying and then classifying the situations that satisfy these desires and needs far more efficiently than our current… um… situation allows for. Also, it is necessary to note how Debord wants us to go about getting to this utopian future: overthrowing the bourgeoisie and their capitalist systems. Then he calls for the reader to depart from the old and never look back, and embark upon an epic quest for dat new new.
Détournement is one technique that the situationalists favored to subvert artistic messages of old. One modern artist who utilizes this technique frequently is the visionary graffiti artist Banksy. He often takes found painting, street props, and other items and twists them into a new and often opposing meaning from the original.
