Korean student eats $182k banana artwork at Maurizio Cattelan exhibition

A likeness of Maurizio Cattelan's absurdist fruit installation, created using a banana, duct tape and a fridge. Photo / Jane Darnell; Wikimedia Commons, CC0

An art student has eaten the central installation in an exhibit by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. His excuse was, he was hungry.

The artwork called “Comedian”, a ripe banana duct taped to a white wall, was recently sold at auction for over US$120,000 ($182000).

The absurdist art installation was the centrepiece of the exhibition WE, in Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art.

Student Noh Hyun-soo, who also had sense of humour, said he ate the artwork because he had missed breakfast.

The stunt, which was filmed by an accomplice, showed Noh peeling the banana off the wall and eating it in a 1-minute clip.

Earnest calls of “excuse me” can be heard from onlookers and museum stewards as the student tucks in.

The Leeum Museum of Art told local media that it would not be seeking damages from the student.

The perishable artwork has to be replaced with a fresh piece of fruit every three days.

“Damaging an artwork could also be seen as an artwork, I thought that would be interesting…” the Seoul University art student told KBS.

“Isn’t it taped there to be eaten?”

The Italian creator Cattelan was reportedly happy about the incident. The BBC reported the artist said it was “no problem at all.”

The absurdist object won praise when it was unveiled at the 2019 Miami Beach art fair. It was dubbed an “iconic historical object” compared to Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans.

Art investors Billy and Beatrice Cox paid over $182,000 for one of three licenced editions of Comedian, which were auctioned at the fair.

“We are acutely aware of the blatant absurdity of the fact that Comedian is an otherwise inexpensive and perishable piece of produce and a couple inches of duct tape,” the Coxes told Associated Press.

“Ultimately we sense that Cattelan’s banana will become an iconic historical object.”

People post in front of Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian. Photo / Getty Images

Each of the three versions were awarded at auction with “certificates of authenticity”, which Perrotin gallery was important to the conceptual art trade.

Of course, this is far from the first time the banana has been eaten. At the Miami fair Georgian-born artist David Datuna, took a bite from the banana in protest.

Eventually the artwork had to be removed by curators, who found it was a distraction, keeping visitors from seeing the rest of the show.

Dubbed the ‘prankster of the art world’, Maurizio Cattelan previous artworks have included absurdist, hyperreal waxwork sculptures “La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour)”(2000) depicting Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite on the floor of Warsaw’s contemporary Zacheta Gallery.

- With Associated Press