Exit Through the Gift Shop
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a biography of street pop artist Thierry Guetta the man who among other accomplishments designed the cover of Madonna’s Celebration Album. This affable Frenchman (single handily trying to rejuvenate mutton chops as fashionable) emigrated to the USA and made a comfortable living in second hand clothing but his passion was his ubiquitous video camera. This gave him reams of random material but when he started documenting the illegal antics of his street artist cousin code named Space Invader the genesis of a real documentary was born. Guetta documented some of the world’s most gifted taggers but the London’s notorious Banksy eluded Thierry as successfully as he does the law. When out of the blue Banksy called Guetta to document his upcoming LA adventure it was like manna from heaven and the two became close. It was also at this time that Banksy went mainstream and felt Thierry should share his archives with the world. The only trouble – Guetta was no filmmaker so Banksy took on the job leaving Thierry with the impression that it was time to take a shot at being an artist. Borrowing from everyone he’s met and capitalizing on a few well chosen accolades from friends, overnight Thierry becomes the sham toast of the LA art scene under the pseudonym of Mr. Brainwash ("MBW"). Exit Through the Gift Shop is a curious title until you reflect on the goodies “gifted” (a nice euphemism for plagiarism) to Thierry Guetta at the end of a long tour.