Host： Banksy， the mysterious street artist from Britain has been doing ingenious art 1）stunts for 20 years， and during the last decade became a superstar for 2）stenciling ladders on the wall that Israel built on the West Bank， for installing sculptures of hooded 3）Guantanamo prisoners at Disneyland. He’s been sort of quiet the past few years until last month. Banksy showed up in New York to do what he called “Better Out Than In.” A new Banksy work popped up on some undisclosed street every day for a month.
　　His experiment generated tons of buzz all over the country and the world， and may be the most extensively documented contemporary art show in history.
　　Jerry Saltz is the senior art critic at New York Magazine， and he followed Banksy’s work while he was in New York. Jerry， welcome to Studio.
　　Jerry： Thanks for having me.
　　Host： So， first off， can you give people an idea of exactly what work Banksy was doing？
　　Jerry： By in large it was one work a day， painting mostly， but some sculpture. There were kind of cartoon things， there were balloons， there was a dog peeing on a fire 4）hydrant， there were circus kind of acts， there was a truck filled with stuffed animals， some text pieces quoting this or that famous author， or saying cheeky things.


　　Host： Right. So this 5）residency， as he called it， was， has to be， the most talked-about visual art event of the year. Was it anything close to the best？
　　Jerry： It wasn’t even what I would call an event of art. I would call it more an event of promotion， hype， incredible British ability to put on an event and a show with 6）razzamatazz.
　　Host： But， given that， certainly from 7）Andy Warhol through 8）Damien Hirst， so much of contemporary art has been about all of those things， a buzz and hype and 9）PR. Jerry： Absolutely！ Absolutely， except with Warhol， there is art to back it up. Nobody used those colors before Warhol used them. They had been there since the beginning. Nobody overlapped 10）silk screens before Warhol did. Banksy is basically a photo-realist， who takes an “artish”style and brings it to the street， and I give him a lot of credit for doing that. Would I call him a great street artist？ I’d say he’s a really successful one and especially at producing reaction.
　　Host： Yeah.
　　Jerry： And that is， I’ll grant， an art， and if more artists had that capacity， we’d see more people out there doin’ it. 　　Host： So should we be happy that this big populist reaction was provoked？
　　Jerry： I have to say that anytime that the group mind gets together， that somebody provides a kind of a local campfire for everyone to gather around and throw their two cents in， I’m for that. I 11）had a ball at every one of the Banksy’s I went to. The Banksy， itself， was irrelevant. Its context was even irrelevant. But people together were not.


　　主持人：班克斯，这位神秘的英国街头艺术家做独创性的艺术噱头展览已经有20年了。10年前，他在以色列于约旦河西岸建的一面墙上画的梯子，以及在迪士尼乐园的蒙面关塔那摩囚犯雕塑让他成了超级明星。然而这几年，他似乎有点沉寂。但上个月，班克斯出现在美国纽约，进行街头艺术展览，他称之为“外面比里面好”。一个新的班克斯作品在一些不知名的街道上展出，为期一个月。他的实验性展览引起了整个国家及全世界的热烈讨论，这可能是历史上引起最广泛讨论的一个现代艺术展。
　　杰里·萨尔兹是《纽约杂志》的资深艺术评论家，他在纽约关注了班克斯的这些作品。杰里，欢迎你。
　　杰里：感谢你的邀请。
　　主持人：那，首先，你能给大家介绍一下班克斯到底做了什么吗？
　　杰里：总的来说就是每天展出一件作品，主要是涂鸦，还有一些雕塑。有类似卡通的画，有气球，一只狗在消防栓上撒尿等，有类似马戏团的表演，一辆装满了填充动物的卡车，一些引用了名人的话语或写着讽刺性话语的文字涂鸦。


　　主持人：好的。班克斯所谓的这次“常驻活动”是今年被谈论得最多的视觉艺术活动。在这些作品中，有没有哪个接近最高水平？
　　杰里：我甚至不会认为那是一次艺术活动。我觉得这只是一次宣传活动、一次炒作，这表现出英国人以极大的精力举办一次活动和表演的非凡能力。
　　主持人：但是，考虑到这一点，那明显是受到安迪·沃霍尔和达明安·赫斯特的影响，因此很多当代艺术都是这样的，引起轰动、进行炒作、进行公关宣传。
　　杰里：确实是这样！确实是这样，只不过就沃霍尔来说，这背后还有艺术作它的后盾。在沃霍尔之前，没人用过那样的颜色，而它们是一直都存在的。在沃霍尔之前，没有人使用丝网印刷复制技术。班克斯原本是个写实画家，他以艺术化的风格把他的画带到了街头，我对他的艺术行为表示赞赏。我会称他为一个出色的街头艺术家吗？我会说他是一个相当成功的街头艺术家，尤其是在制造舆论方面。
　　主持人：是的。
　　杰里：因此我会承认那是艺术，如果有更多的艺术家有这样的能力，我们会看到有更多人做这样的事情。
　　主持人：那么我们是否应该为他所引起的大范围反响而感到高兴呢？
　　杰里：我要说的是，只要能把大众的思想集中在一起，有人制造出一个关注点，把大家都聚集在一起，让人们发表自己的想法，那么我是赞同的。我去过的每一个班克斯的展览都让我很尽兴。这与班克斯本身是无关的，甚至与内容都是无关的，把人们聚集在一起才是意义所在。
　　栏目翻译：Arony