Who is Banksy? The identity of the British artist, one of the best known in the contemporary and urban genre, remains a mystery. More than two decades have passed since his first works appeared on the streets, and until now he had managed to keep his identity a secret.
But this situation would have taken a turn. If a few days ago the imputation of the graffiti artist in a defamation lawsuit could have been the first step to finally reveal the identity of the artist, now new information has emerged that has finally given the first real piece of information: his first name . The “blame” for the leak has been an old BBC interview, in which the artist himself gives his name to the journalist who talks to him.
In the interview, which dates back to 2003, the reporter Nigel Wrench, a former art correspondent for the BBC, asks Banksy if his name is “Robert Banks”, to which the protagonist answers with a simple: “It’s Robbie” . “Robbie. OK. Robbie,” Wrench reiterated. Whether this is his real name or not, only the graffiti artist himself knows, but at the time, in his early twenties, he is not supposed to have told the truth. The name “Robbie” thus confirms the speculations that have existed for years on social networks about the artist’s true name, with “Robert”, “Robin” and “Robbie” being the most popular and commented on among his followers
This is one of the first radio interviews that the artist must have given. Wrench interviewed him on the occasion of the opening of Banksy’s Turf War exhibition in East London. Many years later, Wrench was listening to the podcast The Banksy Story, and this prompted him to retrieve the full interview on a minidisc he had at home. The full conversation is on BBC Sounds as The Banksy Story.
In that conversation, the artist, born in Bristol, explains how he conceives his works, in which he prioritizes and rewards “speed”. “In the same way my mother used to cook roast on Sundays every Sunday and every Sunday she says: ‘it takes hours to do it, minutes to eat lunch.’ And these days she eats lunch in the microwave for one person and he seems much happier. I’m really taking that approach to art. I want to finish it and look for something else.”
This is one of the first conversations with Banksy, one of the most mysterious contemporary artists. Until now, the most plausible theory was the one published in 2007 by the Daily Mail, which after an investigation suggested that the artist was Robin Gunningham, a 53-year-old man born in Bristol. It could be Robert Banks now, though. It remains to be seen whether his indictment in an alleged defamation case against businessman Andrew Gallagher reveals anything about the mysterious artist, who rose to fame thanks to a series of graffiti that appeared on buildings across the country , marked by their satirical themes. In 2018, he shocked the art world when his painting Girl with Balloons, painted on a wall in East London, “self-destructed” immediately after being sold at auction.
Leticia Dolera (Barcelona, ??1981) has been achieving one success after another since she played Ángela, a student in the series Al salir de clase. More than two decades have passed and now the Catalan actress returns to an institute, but not to the fictitious 7 Robles, and returns there as a psychologist to treat a victim of school bullying.
La caja de arena is a series of six chapters that highlights school bullying in adolescence, a problem that affects almost two students per classroom. It will premiere on Neox on Sunday and will also be available on Atresplayer. It is an initiative promoted by the ColaCao Foundation, the Superior Sports Council and the Youth Sports Foundation.
“It’s a series that tries to understand what happens to a boy or girl when they suffer bullying and also to those who witness it”, the actress explains to this newspaper. And he adds: “I think it has brutal social value and should be used as an educational tool in schools and institutes where there is a lack of resources and means to address this problem. Because two talks a year about bullying is not enough. A subject should be taught on human values, feminism and sexual violence”. He trusts that one of the pillars of the new Ministry of Children and Youth is precisely to combat school bullying.
The arena is directed by Daniel Romero and has been created by Victor Pedreira, Pedro Rodríguez Pérez and Nuria Gago. “My role as a psychologist is very small, but I was very excited to be in this series because it is the first fiction project written by my great friend Nuri and being able to accompany her has been very nice”, comments Leticia Dolera.
But in addition to the great friendship between these two actresses, which they often show on their respective social networks, the series especially touches Dolera, who suffered bullying as a teenager and had to change schools. “I had a very bad time and so did my family, but neither the school nor the teachers faced the issue, because at that time it was not called bullying”.
“At first I didn’t explain it at home, because I didn’t want them to suffer, until it became unbearable with phone calls and graffiti on the school door. It was very hard, because I was 13 years old, I even had my period removed and I ended up in the hospital – she confesses. And it all started for having defended a boy with an intellectual disability”. He assures that, after changing centers, he never again had contact with his bullies: “I don’t even remember what they were called.”
This dramatic episode has shaped the personality of Leticia Dolera, “because wounds influence the way we see the world”, she says. This is where her commitment to feminism comes from, mainly: “I think that if you are given the power to go out in the media, like now, you know that you have a responsibility.”
He currently lives between Barcelona and Madrid. He is preparing the casting for Puberty, a series he has written for TV3 set in the world of castellers about the sexual taboo in adolescence. “I will start filming in the summer, when the young people are on vacation. It will be bilingual, because that is how Catalan society relates”. She explains that she will also have a role, that of a sociologist who returns to her village and reunites with the family she disowns, especially her father.
The second project he is preparing is the direction of the play Marcela. “It’s the Don Quixote monologue of the shepherdess Marcela and it’s very current, even though it was written in 1605. I realized that Miguel de Cervantes was a proto-feminist,” she warns. The play, starring Cecilia Freijeiro, with whom she worked in Vida perfecta, will premiere in March at the Sociedad Cervantina theater “built on the lot where the printing press that printed the first Don Quixote was.”
But Leticia Dolera has more projects, because “curiosity is one of the drivers of my life, which has to do with my profession and my work, which is a deep interest in the human soul”. Thus, after the success of his first book Mossegar la poma, he is already studying ideas for a second, “but I lack hours in the day”. And in the future, he would like to shoot the third season of Vida perfecta, “when our faces have changed more and he suffers a new existential crisis”, he says jokingly.
