Is that art or can you eat it? A student apparently asked himself the question when visiting an art exhibition in the South Korean capital Seoul – and came to a clear answer. The work of art “Comedian” by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was on display in the Leeum Art Museum. It consists of a banana taped to the wall.
Apparently, the young student could not fully appreciate the artistic value of this installation. He unceremoniously ripped the banana off the wall and calmly ate it, as seen in videos posted to social media. He glued the bowl back to the wall. A friend filmed the incident. When confronted by the museum, the student defended himself by saying he hadn’t had breakfast and was hungry.
However, the background to the action was apparently not quite so profane. The man told the Korean television station KBS: “Damaging a work of art can also be art. I thought it would be interesting. Isn’t the banana hanging there to be eaten?” He sees Cattelan’s work as a rebellion against authority – and his grip on the banana as “rebellion against rebellion”.
The artist himself did not see this as an affront to himself. “No problem at all,” was his reaction to the incident. This means additional notoriety for his work, which has already sold for more than 100,000 euros. In fact, there was a very similar event back in 2019: a performance artist also picked the banana off the wall at Art Basel in Miami and ate it. At that time there were no consequences – the banana was simply replaced. This will probably happen now, the fruit is exchanged every two to three days anyway.
Sources: The Korea Herald, KBS
