Someone Ate Maurizio Cattelan's Banana Sculpture, Again
This time, a hungry art student who skipped breakfast.
Maurizio Cattelan‘s controversial banana installation, Comedian, is once again the subject of a somewhat unfortunate misunderstanding as, for the second time, someone has eaten the banana.
This time the fault of a South Korean art student named Noh Huyn-soo, visiting the Leeum Museum of Art from Seoul National University, the misunderstanding was a result of the student skipping breakfast that day and still being hungry. After Huyn-soo ate the piece, he taped the peel back into its place and insisted that his action was a performance of art in itself.
Speaking to the Korea Herald about the incident, Huyn-soo explained, “Damaging a work of modern art could also be (interpreted as a kind of) artwork.” Following the act, the museum replaced the banana with a fresh one (as they do every three to four days anyway) and notified the artist — who reportedly made no comment. All in all, it appears that Huyn-soo’s seemingly intentional mistake wasn’t as big an issue as we’d expected it would be.
It’s partly down to the fact that it’s happened before, too — as performance artist David Datuna ate the artist’s first edition of the sculpture when it was first unveiled.
For anyone else that wants to try their luck, or wants to simply just appreciate the works, Comedian is a part of a larger exhibition by Cattelan, titled WE, currently on view at Leeum Museum of Art until July 16.
In other art and design news, this curvy mermaid statue has Italy going wild.
