Dismaland: Palestinian Artist Removed After Staging Protest Against Israeli Paintings

Dismaland

When the Bristol street artist Banksy recently unveiled his newest creation – a group show as a biting satire of Disneyland – the art world was amused and in the most part got the joke, with the addition of the ‘possibly’ intentional farce of six million people clogging the website, none of whom managed to buy tickets.

It would seem that the unsatisfying customer experience was a highly important component of the intentionally unhappy day out, and all part of the Banksy experience – although the Bemusement park claims otherwise – and now one particular Palestinian artist who visited the intentional agony of Dismaland has certainly failed to see the funny side.

Palestinian artist Shadi Alzaqzouq has been thrown out of Dismaland after covering his own works in bedsheets as a protest against the Israeli artists whose work was also on display. Alzaqzouq, 34, said he laid down “like a corpse” in front of his two artworks, which were displayed in one of the park’s three galleries, after daubing bedsheets with the words “R.I.P Gaza: Boycott Israel” and hanging them over his own paintings.

“I found out when I arrived at the show that three Israeli artists were taking part, one of whom served in the IDF [Israel Defence Forces],” the artist told the Jewish Chronicle. “I decided I had to protest in some way so I went and got a bed sheet from my hotel room and wrote ‘R.I.P Gaza: Boycott Israel’ on it in coal and hung it over my artwork and laid down like a corpse in front of my two paintings on display.”

Julie Burchill, who is in charge of the Punch & Julie show at the attraction, which addresses issues from battered women to Jimmy Savile, pointed out on Facebook, “ O dear! Two of the Israeli works are pro-Palestinian anyway (I believe) and the other is brilliant CERAMICS by Ronit Baranga. CERAMICS, font of all human conflict! “

Security guards eventually removed Mr Alzaqzouq, who the Independent reports was told, perhaps ironically, that his protest on Sunday was too “ugly” for the park. The artist’s two paintings are still on display at the ‘attraction’.

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