From its announcement, the buzz surrounding Dismaland has been huge gaining national and global media coverage. Having opened over the weekend, the park is set to welcome hundreds of thousands over its six week duration.
A dystopian Disneyland that is not symbolic of a future we are yet to orchestrate but rather a present day perception of the world that we have created and currently inhabit.
This is Disneyland meets Mad Max.
That is Banksy’s latest creation. The art exhibition, curated by the famous street artist feels like a bad family holiday on a British coast during a rather gloomy summer.
There are a number of similarities with the world’s most famous theme park from the typography of the sign out front to the castle that finds itself at the centre of attention but this is a world of pessimism and anarchy.
The first installation we visited is one of the very pieces of artwork that Banksy himself has designed. It is of course filled with a large dose of irony. The stage is an abandoned dodgems set that comes to life when a solitary bumper car drifts in view, controlled by a hooded Grim Reaper, scythe and all. The bizarre event only hits greater heights when death himself begins to drive around with “Staying Alive” pumping in the background. The first of many surreal experiences.
The bemusement park, as it is self described, is home to the work of around 50 artists that all portray in one way or another the bleak situation in which we find ourselves in.
Perhaps the highlight piece in a sea of misery is a replica city that is steeped in devastation as it depicts the breakout of a riot, not too far removed from a scene that you would expect in Walking Dead, minus the zombies, that is. Sirens are blaring, the flashing lights of the emergency services illuminate the room intermittently, the darkness often swallowing all but the scene closest to you in which a familiar building is on the verge of destruction as the police stand by watching. The negative portrayal of authority is a running theme in Dismaland, this is anti-establishment and anti-capitalism. This is the theme park for the people and not too dissimilar to what you’d expect an amusement park to look like if it was constructed within a Soviet bloc.
Dismaland is a brilliant exhibition that causes you to assess the world you live in and question society. For £3 it is the bargain of this year’s sorry excuse for a summer but then again the grim weather only adds to the experience. It is not often you go to an event and expect misery to be your form of entertainment but that it is what makes Dismaland unique and it delivers it in abundance. From the countless paintings and artwork to a grim fairytale replica of Princess Diana as Cinderella. What are you waiting for?










