I just watched this film and, I must admit, I was baffled with the many inconsistencies, or should I say, the plot holes in the film.
I wanted to believe, but I kept going back to the obvious gaps. For example, Guetta had been filming every moment of his life (even flushing the toilet), but his family videos seemed frozen in time. There was little progression in the filming of his family life--we never saw his children grow. But, he has all of this footage of his excursions with street artists that must have taken place over years. Very perplexing.
This movie is satire. It is a critique of the contemporary art world.
I think back to this ridiculous piece of "art" I saw at MOMA in June of 2009. It was literally a piece of purple yarn thumb-tacked to the wall and floor in the shape of a trapezoid. Nothing else--just string and tacks. And MOMA proudly announced they had just acquired the piece for thousands of dollars. If I remember correctly, it was in the neighborhood of $75,000 (I am not sure of the exact figure because I was so outraged that this was considered a piece of art and what they paid for it, I lost all sensibility and reason). It was not art. Or maybe it was; true art is supposed to elicit a reaction, even anger. Maybe the act of proclaiming it art and advertising how much it cost made it art. But, my initial feeling was (and still is) that it was not worth a major payout and a place in MOMA.
I think this is the point of Exit Through the Gift Shop. True art is so hard to create in our current overexposed media culture that even the art gatekeepers can't decipher what is brilliant and what isn't.
Whomever made this film made the point of the ridiculousness of what constitutes art. And they did a brilliant job of it.
I wanted to believe, but I kept going back to the obvious gaps. For example, Guetta had been filming every moment of his life (even flushing the toilet), but his family videos seemed frozen in time. There was little progression in the filming of his family life--we never saw his children grow. But, he has all of this footage of his excursions with street artists that must have taken place over years. Very perplexing.
This movie is satire. It is a critique of the contemporary art world.
I think back to this ridiculous piece of "art" I saw at MOMA in June of 2009. It was literally a piece of purple yarn thumb-tacked to the wall and floor in the shape of a trapezoid. Nothing else--just string and tacks. And MOMA proudly announced they had just acquired the piece for thousands of dollars. If I remember correctly, it was in the neighborhood of $75,000 (I am not sure of the exact figure because I was so outraged that this was considered a piece of art and what they paid for it, I lost all sensibility and reason). It was not art. Or maybe it was; true art is supposed to elicit a reaction, even anger. Maybe the act of proclaiming it art and advertising how much it cost made it art. But, my initial feeling was (and still is) that it was not worth a major payout and a place in MOMA.
I think this is the point of Exit Through the Gift Shop. True art is so hard to create in our current overexposed media culture that even the art gatekeepers can't decipher what is brilliant and what isn't.
Whomever made this film made the point of the ridiculousness of what constitutes art. And they did a brilliant job of it.
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