Dr. Anna Biela – Artist Room by Banksy, Walled Off Hotel, Bethlehem
MADOA 154 & M4RY4M Art Residency
December 17, 2025 to January 6, 2026
Dr. Anna Biela’s ongoing project in the Artist Room by Banksy at the Walled Off Hotel, Bethlehem, in the West Bank, territories of Palestine under Israeli control, unfolds as a nuanced exploration of perception, site-specificity, and the flow of energy through art. Oscillating around the theme of The View Through the Window, Biela has developed a dialogue with the pre-existing landscape.
Her view of the separation barrier, famously described by Banksy as the “Worst View of the World,” becomes both subject and collaborator. She translates this landscape into a dynamic abstract mural in her signature cool blue-green palette, inspired by Banksy’s Rebel Angels. Executed in spray paint beneath Banksy’s iconic figures, the mural extends the conversation between viewer, environment, and artist, making the outside world a part of the interior creative experience.
The mural is visible through the window, and Biela plans to create additional pieces on the wall inspired by typography in the coming days of her residency, now on day twelve.
Biela chose the Artist Room by Banksy specifically for this project, recognizing the energetic imprint of Banksy’s art as a source of inspiration. She taps into the “heart waves” emanating from Banksy’s work, using this energetic spark as a catalyst for her own creative process. The room becomes a conduit, linking the artist’s energy, the site, and the flow of the surrounding city.
The mural in particular is a signature piece of Banksy at the Hotel and serves as a portal to his energetic imprint. The resonance of this work is so strong that on an energetic level, it feels as if Banksy himself is present in the room with her.
Most days, Biela sits in the Piano Bar at breakfast and sketches the items within her visual grasp. Objects she observes and renders include a lamp, a bottle with a top, a tea cup, the room key, and books, connecting the everyday with the creative act.
For the final three days of her residency, she will move to the Presidential Suite, transforming the 150 m² apartment into a drawing studio. There, using blind contour techniques, Chinese calligraphy ink, and brush, she will document the objects and the space itself, further expanding the residency’s immersive, site-specific inquiry.
Using an iPhone 16 Pro, Biela has documented the passage of time through a series of time-lapse recordings, capturing sunsets, sunrises, and the ethereal blue hour from the Artist Room by Banksy. These recordings, alongside carefully curated objects left by Banksy on the table, become integral elements in her practice, merging the found with the created, the observed with the imagined. The artist has also recorded interactions with visitors, including Issa, who serves coffee under Banksy’s angel motif, situating her work within the rhythms and life of the space itself.
This process-oriented approach is continuously shared through her Instagram account www.Instagram.com/anna__biela and her Anna Biela Flow Blog www.annabiela.com/flow, offering an open record of her daily creative practice and textual reflections.
Through this work, the Artist Room by Banksy becomes both a studio and a lens, as well as a place of meditation and contemplation—a space in which the city, the viewer, and the artist converge. This engagement aligns conceptually with Biela’s permanent site-specific installation The View Room in Wroclaw, Poland, furthering her exploration of perception as an immersive and living experience.
The MADOA 154 & M4RY4M Art Residency provides the temporal and spiritual context for Biela’s creation. Central to the residency is the emergence of a new art movement, Heart (“Art as Heart Waves”), which considers the waves generated by the heart chakra as a medium for artistic expression.
The timing of the residency coincides with the winter solstice and the birth of Jesus, linking the work to a symbolic spiritual rebirth and the illumination of light. Being in Bethlehem—the birthplace of Jesus—Biela experiences this period as her first Christmas alone, without her family, yet embraced by her new family at the Walled Off Hotel.
Biela’s practice is distinguished by its non-commercial approach. The Dr. Anna Biela Art Collection 2005–2025 has been entirely donated to the View Room at the Dr. Anna Biela Museum of Material Culture. This museum, designed and decorated by the artist, presents not only artworks but also items of everyday life, transforming ordinary objects into vessels of reflection, energy, and cultural memory.
The Artist Room by Banksy at the Walled Off Hotel continues this ethos: a living, breathing archive of creation that foregrounds process, presence, and the interconnection between heart, art, and environment.
