The Venice Biennale is an international exhibition of contemporary art, renowned worldwide. The event attracts many art lovers but also many non-exhibition artists who take advantage of the event’s traffic to share their work.This is the case of Banksy, who went to Venice to exhibit one of his works among street vendors.

Called “Venice in Oil”, the artwork is an installation composed of 9 canvases that form a fresco once assembled. Melted into the mass of other traveling painters, the artist unveiled the work in a video on his Instagram account. The assemblage of paintings represents a a gas-guzzling cruise ship, towering over and trying to make its way between the traditional gondolas. With this work, Bansky wants to denounce the mass tourism, and the huge steamers that spoil the landscape and threatens the city.

The artist – whose identity is unknown – famous for his committed, poetic or controversial works also left one of his emblematic grafittis. On the wall of the Ca’Foscari Palace, we can see a young boy in a lifejacket, feet in the water holding up an pink S.O.S. flare. An obvious reference to the fate of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

Pictures : Design Boom