Image: Palazzo Fava, Bologna
Palazzo Fava in Bologna is keeping ‘Banksy Archive 01 – The School of Bristol 1983–2005’ on view through 18 October 2026, after the exhibition was extended from its original run. The show will also remain open throughout August, with regular museum hours and an exceptional opening on Ferragosto, 15 August.
Presented within the Genus Bononiae project, the exhibition is installed at Palazzo Fava, Via Manzoni 2, and is organized by Fondazione Carisbo and Opera Laboratori. The institutional materials describe it as a detailed reconstruction of the origins and development of Banksy’s imagery, set within the cultural and artistic environment of Bristol, where the artist’s language emerged.
The exhibition is structured in 32 sections and places particular emphasis on the so-called ‘School of Bristol’, a local circle of artists and scene-makers that the museum materials identify as part of the context that shaped Banksy’s visual world. Among the figures named in the exhibition text are Robert Del Naja, Tom “Inkie” Bingle, Felix “Flx” Braun, Kyron “Soker” Thomas and Nick Walker. The show connects that milieu to images such as ‘Balloon Girl’ and ‘Flower Thrower’.
Curated by Stefano Antonelli and Gianluca Marziani, ‘Banksy Archive 01 – The School of Bristol 1983–2005’ brings together more than 300 works, original documents and archival materials. According to the exhibition page, the project also includes scholarly input, with scientific curation and the catalogue overseen by Giovanni Argan and a committee of international scholars.
The exhibition page says the route includes sections entrusted to artists and cultural figures who shared formative and project-based experiences with Banksy in Bristol during the 1990s. The presentation is framed as an archival and contextual study rather than a simple survey of finished works, with the museum materials repeatedly stressing the importance of Bristol as the setting in which Banksy’s early visual identity developed.
Visitor information on the Genus Bononiae website lists Palazzo Fava as open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00, with last entry at 18:00. For Ferragosto, the exhibition will open from 10:00 to 19:00 under the same last-entry time. The ticketing page notes that from 28 May a new section, ‘School of Bristol: Contemporary’, has been included in the exhibition admission, and that visitors who had already seen the show before that date may access the new section separately at the Palazzo Fava ticket desk.
