There’s a boat that’s being used to rescue refugees who are traveling from North Africa to Europe and it’s being funded by none other than the legendary street artist known as Banksy. Two weeks ago, the boat started its mission and it has already been credited for rescuing at least 89 people, The Guardian reports. The Louise Michel is named after the French anarchist and feminist who is most known for her role in the Paris Commune. The boat’s visual appeal is as beautiful as its mission because the outside is decorated with the distinct style of art that is easily recognizable as the work of Banksy.
In the artwork, there is an image of a young girl wearing a life vest standing alongside the shape of a heart. On the side of the boat, you can see the word “RESCUE” in huge letters. But why is Banksy doing this? The artist says that he made some money from artwork he did about the migrant crisis, so he wanted to use that money to make a difference. To do that, he reached out to a former captain of several other rescue boats, a woman named Pia Klemp. Klemp has been risking government persecution for many years when it comes to rescuing migrants. Banksy contacted Klemp via email.
The email read as followed: “Hello Pia, I’ve read about your story in the papers. You sound like a badass. I am an artist from the UK and I’ve made some work about the migrant crisis, obviously I can’t keep the money. Could you use it to buy a new boat or something? Please let me know. Well done. Banksy.” Klemp agreed to run the boat for Banksy as long as he didn’t get in her way, she says. “Banksy won’t pretend that he knows better than us how to run a ship, and we won’t pretend to be artists,” she said. She thinks Banksy chose her for the project because of her own missions’ philosophical motivations.
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Klemp sees sea rescue as an anti-fascist fight, not as a humanitarian action. Italian authorities attempted to charge her in 2017 with “assisting in illegal immigration.” Had she been convicted, she could have been sentenced to prison for 20 years. Banksy is an artist who works anonymously because his style of artwork, graffiti, is illegal. Here’s a video about the boat.
