A Korean student eats a banana that is part of Maurizio Cattelan’s exhibition in Seoul

Noh Huyn-soo, a Korean student, ate the artwork. It is a banana that is part of an exhibition by an Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan (Padua, 1960) in the Leeum Museum in Seoul. The young man arrived accompanied by a friend and, ignoring the warnings, peeled off the fruit that was attached to the wall with adhesive tape. After eating the banana, the student put the tape back on.

Huyn-soo explained that he was hungry because he hadn’t eaten breakfast. He also offered a less physical and more intellectual argument. According to local media and BBC reports, the student stated that since he interpreted Cattelan’s work as an act of rebellion against the system, what he proposed with his action was “one rebellion against another.” “Damage to a work of art can be a work of art itself,” he added. “Also, aren’t you gluing a banana together so someone can eat it?”

Eat it or not, the fact is that the banana is already ripe when it is placed on the wall. The museum replaces it with a new one every two or three days. Those responsible have already announced that they will not file a complaint against the student. And Cattelan didn’t seem to care either: “No problem.”

Previously

Noh Huyn-soo thus joins another artist, David Datuna, who did the same in 2019: he took down a banana from the Cattelan exhibit at Art Basel in Miami and ate it. The work, whose title is Comedian, was just sold for 120,000 dollars, about 108,000 euros at the current exchange rate. The action inspired other visitors to pose in front of Cattelan’s banana and take photos of themselves eating the same fruit.