Yesterday, after a six-month hiatus, Banksy’s official Instagram account unveiled a new public mural: a small lighthouse on a beige building facade. The mystery of the mural’s location has since been solved. Its intended meaning, however, is still up for debate.
Banksy Unveils Latest Mural in Marseille
When Banksy posted images of the lighthouse mural on Instagram, his usual method for confirming authorship, the post garnered hundreds of thousands of likes and numerous speculative comments from his millions of followers. While the location of the Banksy lighthouse was initially unknown, the BBC confirmed that it is situated on Rue Félix Fregier in Marseille, a port city in southeastern France.
Banksy stencilled the lighthouse on the side of a nondescript building. The image appears alongside an ambiguous message, which is broken into two rhyming lines: “I want to be what you saw in me.” The silhouette of the lighthouse is part of an illusion—it appears to come from a false shadow painted on the pavement, as if cast by a nearby sidewalk bollard. Interestingly, the Banksy lighthouse is the first public mural in which the anonymous street artist refers to himself in the first person.
What Does the Banksy Lighthouse Mean?
Neither Banksy nor his studio, Pest Control, has commented on the mural’s meaning. Meanwhile, the artist’s followers are busy trying to decipher his intentions. The comment section of Banksy’s latest Instagram post is already rife with theories. Many commenters wondered what, if anything, the lighthouse is meant to illuminate—or perhaps warn against. Some expressed disappointment that the piece does not address certain political crises. Others noted that the mural seems unusually personal and philosophical for the British street artist, who has gone to great lengths to conceal his identity.
The lighthouse is just the latest in a string of enigmatic street art stunts from Banksy. For example, last year, Banksy’s week-long series of animals across London also sparked much speculation. The artist eventually clarified that the animals were intended to “cheer people with a moment of unexpected amusement, as well as to gently underline the human capacity for creative play, rather than for destruction and negativity.”
