The British artist reveals installation near Waterloo Place as public debates its meaning.

On Thursday, British artist Banksy confirmed authorship of a statue that appeared in recent hours in central London and bore his signature on the pedestal.

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In a video posted on social media, accompanied by epic music, Banksy reviews some of the most important monuments in the British capital, such as the Big Ben tower, as well as several equestrian statues and the one dedicated to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, before revealing his creation.

Banksy’s new work is a life-size sculpture of a man on a pedestal, dressed in a suit, holding a flag that covers his face while he appears to march firmly, on the verge of stepping into the void.

Banksy also showed part of the installation process of the sculpture, which took place at night with the help of cranes and several workers, without police or any other authority intervening and without anyone raising alarm over the noise.

After early onlookers noticed Banksy’s signature at the base of the statue, authorities placed a perimeter of metal barriers around the sculpture, located on Waterloo Place, where monuments stand to figures such as Edward VII, nurse Florence Nightingale, and those fallen in the Crimean War.

The statue, situated midway between Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace, appears to depict a politician walking into the void while carrying a flag.

Through social media, people around the world have already begun attributing meanings to Banksy’s work, noting that it could be the best representation of contemporary fascism, which is spreading across the planet, backed by leaders blind to the possible consequences of their actions. Using her account on X, Muse, an artist, offered the following insightful interpretation of the sculpture:

“Banksy didn’t just blind the man with the flag. He gave him the confidence to stride anyway. This isn’t the usual ‘patriotism makes you stupid’ jab everyone keeps repeating.

Look at the suit, the plinth, the imperial corridor of Waterloo Place… this is the modern power suit, the bureaucrat, CEO, politician, stepping off the very pedestal society built for him.

The flag doesn’t slow him. It gives him momentum he never questions.

Banksy’s point is quieter: we don’t fall because we’re blind. We fall because we’ve convinced ourselves the flag is our eyes.

Every empire, every movement, every ‘greater cause’ started exactly like this — with faceless momentum. The sculpture isn’t mocking the marcher. It’s mourning the moment he mistook the wind for wisdom.”

teleSUR/ JF

Source: X – EFE

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