An anarchic amusement park by street artist Banksy that mocked capitalism and consumer culture has brought an economic boom to a faded British seaside town.
Banksy’s Dismaland “bemusement park” transformed a derelict outdoor swimming pool in Weston-Super-Mare into a macabre parody of a theme park, complete with a derelict castle, a dead Cinderella and a Grim Reaper in a bumper car.
Local officials say the attraction, which closed yesterday after five weeks, drew more than 150,000 people to the southwest England town of 75,000.
Photo: Reuters
Fans from around the world snapped up all available tickets — limited to 4,000 a day — for the event billed as a “festival of art, amusements and entry-level anarchism.”
A final concert on Friday night featured performances by groups such as De La Soul, Pussy Riot and Blur singer Damon Albarn.
Tourism body Visit Somerset said the exhibition had brought ￡20 million (US$30 million) to a region that has struggled since foreign vacations replaced local seaside holidays for many Britons.
Officials hope to use the shuttered site for future art and performance events.
Banksy said the project was not a swipe at Disney, despite its familiar-looking castle logo.
It satirized the tourism and entertainment industries, with exhibits including a sculpture of a woman being attacked by a cloud of seagulls and a pond where visitors could steer model boats crammed with migrants.
The site also featured work by about 50 international and British artists.
The artist told the Sunday Times newspaper he was inspired by the seasonal theme parks that pop up at Christmas “where they stick some antlers on an Alsatian dog” and spray fake snow around.
“It’s ambitious, but it’s also crap,” he said. “I think there’s something very poetic and British about all that.”
Banksy, who has never disclosed his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in his home town of Bristol — near Weston — and has become one of the world’s best-known street artists.
His often satirical works have sold for as much as US$1.8 million at auction.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS