In today's segment, we have an exclusive interview with the entrepreneur, philanthropist, and curator: Alexander Nachkebiya.
Q: Alexander, you’ve recently curated the Banksy Exhibition: The Art of Protest, at the Disseny Hub, could you tell us a bit about the collaboration and–
AN: First of all, I want to be explicit and state that this was not a collaboration. I do not know Banksy, I’ve never seen him nor spoken to him.
Q: Right. Well, can you tell us a little about the exhibition though?
AN: It's quite controversial, I mean words cannot do it justice. There’s nothing like it. One thing is to see Banksy on the street, and another is to jackhammer a wall, package it, export it to my temperature-controlled storage, and fly tons of stone across the world to install into different indoor spaces. You just must come and see it for yourself.
Q: This is the first touring show that you’ve curated, isn’t it? What made you want to get involved in the art scene?
AN: Well, after I saw the famous stunt at Christie’s, it all just came to me: if street art technically doesn’t belong to anyone… Well, as a philanthropist, I couldn’t help but dedicate my life’s work to saving art from the streets.
Q: And so do you think those artists should have any say over whether their work is to be displayed in a gallery?
AN: I’m not sure… I don’t remember Banksy mentioning anything–
Q: Oh so you have talked to him?
AN: I mean no, no, you must have misheard me. I did steal the work, I swear. But to answer your previous question, if street art belongs to no one, wouldn’t it mean that it belongs to… everyone? I don’t know… but one thing I do know from studying marketing at the Saint Petersburg State University of Finance and Economics is: Do. Do now! It's better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Q: Banksy is the only street artist you’ve curated for so far… Why him?
AN: I’m so glad you asked, Banksy is the inventor of street art. He’s fresh. Bold. Authentic!
Q: What do you consider to be authentic?
AN: To my mind, Gary Vee words it perfectly, “The market decides.”
Ilustración por EL MARQUÈS
Q: I see that this exhibition has been touring all over major cities, New York, Paris… so why Barcelona?
AN: Well, look around! As a philanthropist, I feel that it is my duty to bring street art to people all over the world. I was so sad to see none in Barcelona, the people here were not even familiar with this hip new medium at all! I feel like I also must awaken the inner activist of the inhabitants of whichever city I'm touring in. I think we might be starting a movement here.
Q: If what you’re doing is a “movement,” why charge entrance fees to something which was free in the first place?
AN: You’ve got a point there, but when Banksy and I– ..err sorry– when I was getting the show together, the numbers were just not adding up. With $1,500,000 in fines for detaching walls from public buildings, we had to tighten our belts to minimize company losses. You could say we got a bit inspired by our artist here and got a little rebellious! Ultimately we were forced to cut the non-profit nonsense. We decided to rebrand and it actually became a hit, you can follow the hashtag created by our fans #saynotonoprofit! We would like to give a special thanks to Nachkebiya for joining us for this interview and a shoutout to Ajuntament de Barcelona for funding this extremely relevant exhibition to today’s political climate.
Este articulo es parte de The Posttraumatic VOL.4 "El Fin de los Recursos Emocionales".