I have been waiting for this moment for 5 years. I was dying of anticipation. The morning of Tuesday, November 29th, 2024, at 9 a.m., my journey as an artist was about to come full circle. I ran, fuelled by a blend of excitement and irony.
Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan is on tour. 9 days – 9 cities, stretching across continents. I know what you’re thinking: it’s bullshit. And you’re right. The artist doesn’t pretend that it’s anything else. And that’s precisely why it’s brilliant.
- It is bullshit that he put a banana on a wall, called it art and people accepted it.
- It is bullshit that the first edition sold for $120,000 in 2019.
- It is bullshit that an auction house organised this tour.
- It is bullshit that another edition might fetch over $1.5 million in New York at an auction.
- It is bullshit that it even comes in editions.
Yet, what better critique exists of the art world’s follies than a banana on a wall? Compared to Benedikte Bjerre’s The birds, which I reviewed recently, Comedian is an unparalleled satire—a masterpiece in its simplicity. The questions it evokes are endless:
- How do they select a banana destined to become a million-dollar art piece?
- Who decides on the banana?
- Is it always the same one?
- How do they keep it fresh? Does it mould or dry out?
- Is it consumed, and if so, how much is this poop worth?
- Who gets to eat it?
- Why this banana is better than any other banana?
- Why do people want to waste time thinking about this work?
- Why would someone buy it?
- Why isn’t it the same as if you tape it to the wall? Or is it?
- Does context change everything? Why?
Yet, the highlight of my visit was receiving a free t-shirt from Sotheby’s for being among the first 50 people who visited that show. Naturally, I’ve already ordered a special case for it—one day I might buy a one-bedroom flat for that T-shirt. Given how much houses in London cost now, this might be my only option.
I thought about it for a long time, and if I had the opportunity to buy this work of art, I wouldn’t pay more than £1000 for this banana. That’s how much it’s worth to me.
At the start of this post, I wrote that my journey as an artist came full circle–during my BA, I created a piece that was a commentary on Cattelan’s work, inviting people to eat the bananas I displayed. Was it art? Was it better or worse than Cattelan’s? It was chaotic, but it taught me one thing: tape needs constant replacing. So, if nothing else, we can be sure that at least the tape on Comedian isn’t reused.