“I opened”. This is how a student who ate the banana in Maurizio Cattelan’s famous artistic installation “Comedian”, which is currently on display at the Leeum Art Museum, a South Korean museum in Seoul, justified himself. “I skipped breakfast and got hungry,” Noh Huyn-soo was right, consuming some of the Italian artist’s work, which was exhibited for the first time in 2019, on April 28. The artwork is part of the Cattelan “We” exhibition and it is forming. A piece of ripe banana taped to a wall in a museum.
After the South Korean student ate the fruit, he taped the peel to the wall. His action was immortalized in a video taken by a friend and then posted on social media. After the young man’s gesture, the museum staff restored the installation with a new banana. It’s not the first time a visitor to the installation has eaten a banana: artist David Datuna has already done so at the Art Basel contemporary art fair in Miami.
Noh told South Korean media that for him, Cattelan’s work represented rebellion and that his movement could be seen as a rebellion against rebellion. “There may be a revolt against the rebellion,” the student said, “Destroying a work of art would be considered a work of art in itself, I thought it would be interesting. Wasn’t it glued there to be eaten?” young South Korean’s rhetorical question.
The sculptor and performance artist Deadpan Cattelan showed no signs of concern. “Absolutely no problem,” commented from New York. The Leeum Art Museum, contacted by the BBC, declined to comment on the incident. The museum center management announced that it will not demand compensation from the student. The exposed banana is reportedly replaced every two to three days.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
