Chile, the first stop in Latin America for the exhibition of the enigmatic Banksy

Chile will be the first stop in Latin America for "The Art of Banksy: Without Limits", the unauthorised exhibition that pays tribute to Banksy, the urban artist who keeps his identity anonymous and who amazes the world with his graffiti and murals stray from him.

Starting Wednesday, a tent set up at the Gabriela Mistral cultural centre in downtown Santiago will host a display of more than 160 works, murals and sculptures by the enigmatic British artist who began painting graffiti in the 1990s in England and extended his street art for several countries.

"I am interested in how people leave (the exhibition). If after seeing more than 160 works by him there is a change of chip in your brain. If you become more human, if you become more empathetic, if you break that bubble of individualism in which our contemporary society lives," Guillermo Quintana, curator and organiser of the exhibition for four years, said.

Compared to artists of the stature of Pablo Picasso or Andy Warhol, Banksy captures in his works themes such as animal rights, migration, politics, criticism of the English crown, and lately about the coronavirus and the confinement that the world experienced during the pandemic.

The exhibition will feature original paintings by Banksy, such as a "Welcome" rug, as well as replicas of famous murals, such as a group of pigeons with anti-immigration messages or the flower-throwing protester.