After debuting online without a confirmed location, Banksy’s newest stencil, featuring a lighthouse overlaid with a series of haunting words, has now been traced to a street in southern France. As fans debate its meaning, discover why secrecy and symbolism remain central to the street artist’s practice.
© BBC News
Banksy fans were sent into a frenzy on Thursday afternoon after the elusive artist unveiled a new work on Instagram without revealing where it had been spray-painted. Now, thanks to BBC Verify, the mystery has been solved. The artwork has been located on Rue Félix Frégier in Marseille, a city Banksy previously hinted at in other works.
The mural features the black silhouette of a lighthouse on a blank wall, paired with the handwritten phrase: “I WANT TO BE WHAT YOU SAW IN ME.” Painted just behind a steel post, whose shadow mimics the lighthouse’s beam of light, the piece once again shows Banksy’s knack for transforming street infrastructure into part of the visual narrative.
The work is open to interpretation. Some read it as a personal reflection, others as a romantic statement, and others still as a self-referential commentary on Banksy’s public image. The tilted lighthouse and wistful text evoke a tension between perception and reality—between how we see others and how they see themselves. It’s a fitting motif for an anonymous artist whose every move invites scrutiny, speculation and global attention.
Fans have linked the quote to multiple song lyrics, including Will Dempsey’s “The Man You See in Me”, Belle and Sebastian’s “I Don’t Know What You See in Me” and Lonestar’s “Softly”, the latter featuring the lyric: “I want to be what you see in me. I want to love you the way that you love me.”
From his 2023 series of animal-themed works across London to a December Instagram post referencing his 2003 piece Toxic Mary, Banksy has long embraced the tactic of surprise reveals and ambiguous messaging. This strategy of withholding details—be it location, meaning or context—is part of a longstanding pattern of artistic provocation and public engagement explored in our other articles on the artist.
At Maddox Gallery, we are proud to offer both original works and signed prints by Banksy. Explore our collection here.
