Banksy is now being used as a logo for the French far-right
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has publicly unveiled her logo for the 2017 presidential campaign during a press briefing at her new Paris headquarters.
The offices at Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré -- just 2 km from the presidential residence the Élysée -- are decorated with cult pop figures like Clint Eastwood, Einstein and the Rolling Stones logo -- all featuring a blue rose, the Le Pen symbol.
Perhaps surprisingly, though, the Front National (FN) HQ walls also featured a popular mural of British street artist Banksy, "Rage, Flower Thrower," which shows a man wearing a kerchief and baseball cap throwing a bouquet of flowers (blue, in the Le Pen version).
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Banksy's artworks have often denounced the mistreatment of migrants and refugees at Calais refugee camp.
In 2015, he created a series of works in the so-called "Jungle", which was dismantled in October, including one which depicted Steve Jobs in a black turtleneck clutching an early Mac computer and a bag, as a reminder his father was a Syrian migrant.
Materials from Banksy's Dismaland theme park were sent to the Calais camp and used for new shelters. The famous sign was altered to read "Dismal Aid" as a reference to the flood of goodwill directed to the camp.
In general, Banksy's public activism and artworks seem pretty much at odds with Le Pen's anti-migrant, xenophobic and nationalist agenda.
According to The Lab, Le Pen and her advisors initially didn't seem to know who Banksy was, then they tried to downplay it. "It's a diversion. We can all make diversions. Why not? I invite all netizens to create other diversions and we're going to put them up in the HQ," she said.
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Le Pen adviser Sébastien Chenu told the Huffington Post that Banksy was chosen for his "anti-conformist side" and "because we are free people and we want to blow this wind of freedom."
Mashable has reached out to Banksy's representative for comment.
