This Sunday 17th of December at 9pm BBC Two will be screening “The Alternativity”, an alternative nativity play at Banksy‘s Bethlehem hotel directed by award-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle and Riham Isaac, a Palestinian director, performance artist, actress and teacher at Bethlehem University.
The Alternativity took place on 3 December and was staged in the car park of the Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in the occupied West Bank. The event was announced by the artist through his Walled Off Hotel at the end of November.
For the occasion Banksy created a promotional image for the documentary showing a drone watching over the nativity scene. He also put up two new artworks ahead of the event. One said “Peace on Earth” next to a twinkling star, which doubled as an asterisk. Below was the same asterisk and the words “Terms and conditions apply”. The other artwork was painted on the wall and showed two cherubic angels trying to prise two panels apart with a crowbar.
The occupied West Bank, has been called by Banksy “the least Christmassy place on earth”, and by staging an Alternative version of the traditional Nativity in the car park of the hotel, he highlights the struggle in the area today thanks to occupation and segregation.
According to the BBC, the performance follows a satirical street party Banksy threw in November to apologise for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which expressed the British government’s support for a Jewish national home in Palestine and paved the way for Israel’s creation. The party was reportedly gatecrashed by Palestinian protesters who said they didn’t like the use of British flags or the way Palestinian children were being used.
Save the date.
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.
