Maurizio Cattelan’s banana has been eaten again. When the clowning Italian artist first exhibited Comedian (2019), which features a shop-bought banana affixed to wall with duct tape, at the Art Basel Miami Art Fair, it was removed without permission and devoured by a performance artist named David Datuna. Now a South Korean museum visitor has appeared similarly hungry for attention.
Footage at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul shows Noh Huyn-soo unpeeling the fruit, which was originally sold by Cattelan in an edition of three for $120,000 (£95,640), eating it, then reattaching the skin to the wall with the tape. The artist told museum officials that he was hungry and thought his return of the remnants might be interpreted as an artwork in itself.
Cattelan is know for his courting of publicity, so the destruction of banana, that gets replaced every three days, was never likely to faze him: inevitably, Cattelan told media he has ‘no problem’ with the incident. ArtReview regretfully promises to bring you more news of fruit-related theft when it, inevitably, happens again.
