Sintesi del contenuto

• Lettura in inglese dedicata a Banksy, l’artista di strada più famoso e misterioso al mondo.
• Aggiornata con glossario e accompagnata da esercizi di comprensione, vocabolario e grammatica.
• Temi trattati: street art, attualità, critica sociale e curiosità.
• Esercizi strutturati su informazioni vere/false, abbinamento termini-definizioni, completamento frasi in present perfect.

Obiettivi didattici e benefici per gli studenti

• Migliorare la reading comprehension su testi di attualità.
• Ampliare il vocabolario su arte, società, cultura e attualità.
• Rafforzare l’uso corretto del present perfect in contesto reale.
• Sviluppare il pensiero critico tramite riflessioni su arte e questioni sociali.

Come utilizzare la risorsa in classe

• Lettura individuale o guidata in classe, con discussione sui temi principali del testo.
• Svolgimento in autonomia o in gruppi degli esercizi proposti (comprensione, lessico, grammatica).
• Spunto per dibattiti sull’arte urbana, le identità e il ruolo sociale dell’artista.
• Adatta sia per compiti a casa sia come verifica/pratica in classe.

__________

Street art(1) has existed for thousands of years. Think of the ancient cave paintings of Lascaux, or the graffiti on the walls of Pompeii. But in the 21st century, no street artist has caught the world’s attention quite like Banksy.

Nobody knows exactly who Banksy is. Most people think this mysterious person is a man from Bristol, England, but he has never revealed his true identity. For over twenty years, Banksy has created powerful, witty(2) images on walls, bridges and buildings all over the world. From London to Los Angeles and from Paris to Palestine, the work appears in many places, but the artist’s identity remains a mystery.

What makes Banksy’s work so special is the mix of simple, stencilled(3) images and strong political messages. Banksy often focuses on war, money and social inequality(4). One famous image shows a little girl letting go of a heart-shaped balloon, a symbol of hope. Another shows a soldier throwing flowers instead of a grenade(5). The images are easy to understand, but they make you think.

In 2018, Banksy created a worldwide sensation. A painting called Girl with Balloon sold at Sotheby’s auction house for over one million pounds. The moment the sale was finished, the painting began to cut itself into pieces. A hidden device had been inside the frame for years. Art lovers were shocked, but many people thought it was a clever way to criticise the high prices in the art world. The painting was renamed Love Is in the Bin and is now worth even more.

Banksy has also created large installations(6). In 2015, the artist built “Dismaland”, a dystopian(7) version of Disneyland, in a small seaside town in southwest England. Visitors could walk through broken rides, dark statues and strange artworks. It attracted thousands of visitors from around the world. It was very popular, but it had a serious message too: the commercialisation(8) of fun can hide real problems.

The great irony(9) of Banksy’s story is this: Banksy has spent years criticising the art world, but has now become one of its most famous and valuable artists. These paintings were once made illegally on public walls. Today, they sell for millions at famous auction houses(10). Some people think this is very strange. Others believe it is Banksy’s biggest and cleverest artwork of all. Banksy has never given an answer, and perhaps that is the point.

Glossary

1 street art: arte di strada
2 witty: arguto/a, spiritoso/a
3 stencilled: realizzato con stencil (tramite maschere ritagliate)
4 inequality: disuguaglianza
5 grenade: granata
6 installations: installazioni artistiche
7 dystopian: distopico/a
8 commercialisation: commercializzazione
9 irony: ironia
10 auction houses: case d’asta

(by Oliver Wood)