Ben Lewis: The Chameleon Art Documentary Filmmaker

Ben Lewis, a British filmmaker and art critic, is known for his investigative documentary series Art Safari, which aired on the BBC in the 2000s. The series renewed the art documentary genre with humor and deep inquiry. Lewis's approach is chameleonic: he adapts his methodology to each artist's personality and work. For Sophie Calle, he proposed ideas she repeatedly refused, leading him to solicit suggestions from the public outside Centre Pompidou. For Maurizio Cattelan, who refused to appear on camera, Lewis sent actors playing the artist's sculptures to interview him, eventually wearing a giant Cattelan head at the Venice Biennale. For Wim Delvoye, Lewis underwent a tattoo of a crucified Mickey Mouse to own a piece of the artist's work, then had it appraised at a London auction house, which deemed human skin unappraisable. Lewis's film The Great Bubble of Contemporary Art (2009) exposed the mechanics of the art market, linking its transformation to broader economic shifts, including the 2008 subprime crisis. The article, published in Art Press 2 in 2012, highlights Lewis's background as a former artist and his quest for funding for new Art Safari episodes.