Banksy to send timbers from his UK theme park to refugees

A few 5,000 displaced people are camped out in and around the French port there, NPR’s Leila Fadel reports from London.

The message was accompanied by a photo of Banksy’s fire-ravaged fairy-tale Cinderella Castle, the centrepiece of Dismaland, superimposed over the migrant camp.

According to Dismaland website, the exhibition pieces will be used to build shelters for these people: “Coming soon…”

An announcement on the website confirmed plans to send fittings from the exhibition to aid refugee camps in Calais.

The park closed for the final time on Sunday following a show on Friday night, including De La Soul, Kate Tempest, Leftfield and a surprise appearance by Damon Albarn.

4,000 tickets a day were sold online for the temporary art show, the brainchild of the famously secretive and elusive street artist from Bristol.

The so-called “bemusement park”, which is said to have generated £20million for the economy in its hometown Weston-super-Mare, will be dismantled from tomorrow after an immensely popular five-week run.

Given that Dismaland’s home was in the United Kingdom, it’s interesting to see the project creators taking aim at their host country’s flaws as well, not merely at the American-based power structures that the theme park originally lampooned. Other exhibits showed “a woman on a bench being attacked by seagulls, a killer whale emerging from a toilet to jump though a hoop, and an oil caliphate-themed mini golf course”.

The park has 18 attractions, including Banksy’s art and the art of Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer and Jimmy Cauty.

“It’s modeled on those failed Christmas parks that pop up every December, where they stick a few antlers on an Alaskan dog and spray fake snow”, said the artist. “I think it’s going to do fantastic things for Weston and Somerset”, said Turner.

The process to decommission Dismaland begins on Monday and is expected to take three weeks.

Mike Jackson, North Somerset Council’s chief executive, said discussions were taking place with the town council about using the location.