The new Banksy hotel will open in Paris on June 9, 2021. – Geoffrey Swaine // SIPA
No need to travel to the West Bank to sleep in a Banksy suite. From June 9, a hotel imitating the one created by the artist in Bethlehem will open its doors in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, rue du Faubourg Montmartre. It will be located next to the Lafayette-Drouot space, a former garage that has been hosting an exhibition of works by the street artist since 2019. The World of Banksy. This space has been finding its visitors since May 19, after the closure due to the coronavirus.
In 2017, Banksy inaugurated the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, an establishment he decorated in person. In Paris, the entrepreneur Hazis Vardar, owner of several theaters, seized the opportunity to take over the commercial lease of the neighboring hotel of the Lafayette-Drouot space, and decided to transform it into a Parisian Walled Off.
“We dramatize the work of Banksy”
Hazis Vardar detailed with the JDD the process used to reproduce the West Bank hotel – located opposite the wall separating Israel and the Palestinian Territories (hence its name, “walled off” translating to “walled”) – and the works of Banksy: “We worked on from detailed photographs. Of course, the spaces of our hotel are not the same, but we have kept the spirit of the place. Banksy’s work is dramatized. “
As a starting point, the hotel offers an extension of the exhibition on two floors. The World of Banksy, for a price of 6 euros. The establishment consists of around twenty rooms, with walls decorated with reproductions of the works of the anonymous artist who is internationally renowned.