“3D”, the leader of Massive Attack, is it Banksy? – The world

Le Monde | 02/09/2016 at 9:43 p.m. • Updated 09/02/2016 at 22:03 | By Emmanuelle Jardonnet

the ability to Banksy, absolute star of street art, to feed the mystery and power fantasies only denies decidedly not. While Britain has not “hit” in recent months (the last one was a gift as an ode to irreverence in a school in Bristol in June) is a new theory identity that arouses curiosity. The Daily Mail shows an investigative journalist named Craig Williams (without giving further references) speculates that the prolific anonymous artist is none other than Robert “3D” Del Naja, the leader . of Massive Attack

Read also: Banksy made a surprise gift to schoolchildren

This alliance is based on a comparison between the appearance of the first works in public space and the itinerary of tour group originating, like him, Bristol. And coincidences are disturbing effect in the cities where the group produced outside Europe.

Toronto, Boston, New York …

1 ^st May 2010, six of Banksy stencils appeared in the streets of San Francisco after two dates Massive Attack in the city (25 and 27 April). When the band played in Toronto a week later, new murals have appeared on site. Same in Chinatown in Boston, where the two successive one day apart. Finally, in 2013, during the “residence” of a month of Banksy in New York, during which he produced a work day in the streets of the city, the group itself was in residence at Manhattan’s September 28 to October 4 to Park Avenue Armoury

Read. in the footsteps of Banksy in New York

a few years earlier, in April 2003, a work by Banksy appeared in Melbourne, a city where Massive Attack played a month before, and in 2006, during a tour in the US, Massive Attack went through the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, a week before the exhibition- event Banksy, “Barely Legal” in the city, yet notes that investigation. Other agenda parallel: in 2008, Banksy created fourteen stencils in the streets of New Orleans at the 3 ^th anniversary of the passage of Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, Del Naja wrote the soundtrack of the documentary Trouble the Water on the same subject

This is a detail, but in this view, could feed the doubt.: in 1998, at the Glastonbury festival, such as Le Monde reported on last year about an atypical work sold at Drouot, Banksy had Graffé in public, but hidden. But it was at the time not yet known (or even stencil), while Massive Attack, who had just released his album Mezzanine , was at its peak, and “3D” already star

Read also:. a Banksy “fallen” from a truck at Drouot sold over 600 000 euros

The question age

“Maybe this assumption was that Banksy one person is off the mark, and it is rather a group that, over the years, followed Massive Attack and painted walls in their spare time “, Craig Williams advance in the Daily Mail . He added: “and maybe at the head of this group we Del Naja. A multidisciplinary artist who leads one of the leading bands of the recent history of British music, but also one of the most revered artists of the planet. That would be something cool. “

In 2008, the Mail on Sunday published a lengthy investigation (photo support) identifying as Banksy was Robin Cunningham, is a scientific method based on the geolocation of the artist’s work seems to have come confirmed in March. Craig Williams, Robert Del Naja is this schoolboy Bristol which everyone has lost track

Publicly, the leader of Massive Attack and Banksy show a long-standing friendship. The first appeared elsewhere in the famous documentary second, Make the wall (2010). Last year, Banksy also signed the preface of the book 3D and the Art of Massive Attack on the visual history of the group, and a concert of Massive Attack was scheduled to Dismaland, the park d attraction exposure created by Banksy near Bristol during the summer.

in an interview in 2006, Banksy highlighted a sharp difference in age between them, while recalling that “3D” is a former graffiti artist: “When I was 10, a boy called” 3D “actively graffait the streets. I think he went to New York, and he was the first to report paint bombs at Bristol. “ The famous Robin Cunningham suspected of Banksy was born in 1973, according to the survey of the Mail on Sunday, and would therefore have 43 years today, while Robert Del Naja has officially 50 years.