M.V. Louise Michel appeared in August 2020 as Banksy’s ship project for refugee rescue operations in the Mediterranean. The work is a large mural drawn in pink-white stencil technique on an old French lighthouse vessel and the project itself.

Banksy purchased the ship for 1 million euros, equipped it for refugee rescue and dedicated it to the anarchist feminist Louise Michel.

At the centre of the ship is a version of the Girl with Balloon figure adapted to the rescue vessel; she holds a pink heart-shaped lifebuoy. On the ship ‘Rescue’ is written in large pink letters and part of the ship is painted pink. The girl’s innocence is distorted by the pain of the refugee crisis at sea; the pink colour accent creates a contrast between hope and danger with the heart and lifebuoy.

Banksy turns the refugee crisis into a personal story. With the ship’s pink paint and girl mural, he combines Louise Michel’s anarchist legacy with modern migration drama. This is one of the rare projects in which Banksy intervened with direct action. The ship rescued more than 200 refugees in the Mediterranean.

He questions the humanity of the refugee crisis and Europe’s migration policies; while the girl holds the lifebuoy, she symbolises the innocence of children at sea and lives awaiting rescue. The pink colour creates a contrast between hope and danger. The work criticises states’ policy of ‘leaving refugees in the middle of the sea’. By naming it after anarchist Louise Michel, Banksy emphasises solidarity against authority.

Banksy uses stencil technique on a large-scale surface such as the ship hull with minimalist contrast and dynamic composition. The contrast between the girl’s peaceful posture and the urgent call of the pink lifebuoy intensifies the visual irony.

Critics describe the work as ‘the most poignant portrait of the refugee crisis’.

The ship rescued 89 refugees in its first rescue operation on 28 August 2020. In September it was seized by Italian authorities, released in 2021 but blocked again. Banksy entrusted the ship to the anonymous female captain Pia Klemp. Klemp is known as the ‘feminist anarchist of the sea’. In 2022 the ship became active again and collaborated with Open Arms.