Exit Through The Gift Shop

Bob and I just saw a very odd and interesting movie called "Exit Through the Gift Shop." It purports to be a documentary about street artists made by a Frenchman named Thierry Guetta, but after a while it morphs into a film about the Frenchman who becomes a street artist himself, made by Banksy, one of the street artists whose work he has been documenting. In other words, they exchange roles: Banksy becomes the film-maker and Guetta becomes a street artist. Then Guetta gets famous (aided by a lot of self-hype), as do the other graffiti artists who begin to show their work in galleries. But is his "art" just a big hoax, a commercial scam put over on the unsuspecting public? Is he even who he actually says he is? Is the film itself a hoax? Banksy, one of the world's most famous graffiti artists, has kept his identity secret for years. No one really knows who he is or what he looks like. Has Guetta been put up to this by Banksy -- or is Banksy actually the Frenchman? If street art becomes gallery art, has its original intention been lost? What is "art" anyhow? Can anyone be an artist?