AP Photo/Dusan Vranic
Yesterday the elusive British artist Banksy, released images of his newest creation. The Walled Off Hotel, a nine-room guesthouse in the West Bank city of Bethlehem whose windows overlook the barrier that separates the territory from Israel.
Of the nine rooms, the Banksy room is probably the most significant, depicting a Palestinian and an Israeli officer having a pillow fight on the wall, right above the bed.
At the Wallet Off Hotel all the rooms overlook the barrier that separates the territory from Israel. Wonderful isn’t it?
The hotel counts with a cozy Piano Bar decorated with surveillance cameras mounted like taxidermic trophies, a Grecian bust surrounded by a cloud meant to depict tear gas, and a collection of Banksy artworks that include vandalised oil paintings.
As this wasn’t enough, Banksy created a small museum dedicated solely to the biography of the wall. The museum contains state-of-the-art audio visual presentations and a very old tree. Other highlights includes an animated history of the region, military pornography and original beach sculpture from Gaza, among other things. The scene seems to be introduced by a wax statue depicting the signing of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 letter of British intent to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Curated in association with Dr Gavin Grindon from Essex University the museum contains almost fully fact-checked material and will be an ongoing repository for local stories, artefacts and testimonies.
The hotel will open to guests on March 11, with rooms starting at $30 a night. Sweet dreams.
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
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