Cattelan’s banana sold for 6.2 million, because “it is the symbol of contemporary art”

“Cattelan has changed the rules of the game once again and his ‘Comedian’ was sold at auction for 6.2 million. A little while ago a book was released entitled ‘The 12 million dollar Jaws ‘ which referred to the sudden rise of a work by Damien Hirst and described the mechanisms of the art system. Today that book would be called ‘The $6 Million Banana'”. Thus the art critic, journalist and curator Nicolas Ballariowho is also on excellent friendly terms with the Paduan artist Maurizio Cattelancomments to Adnkronos on the sensational result at the auction of the banana attached to a wall with adhesive tape.

“The installation had already caused discussion by presenting it at Art Basel Miami, one of the most important contemporary art fairs in the world, in 2019. Its name is precisely ‘Comedian’ and it is the most reproduced work of the decade. Who knows if the greengrocer who sold it to Sotheby’s employees in New York yesterday morning for 30 cents, will he ever know that a few hours later that same banana was sold for that mind-boggling sum to the billionaire founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron! Many will use this story to scream scandal – claims Ballario – but ‘Comedian’ is the symbol of contemporary artis the symbol of Cattelan, of his walking on a tightrope like a tightrope walker, of always leaving it up to the critics and the public to fight to interpret, for better or for worse, his work”.

“Of course the banana has many meanings, it is a symbol of global trade, but also the most classic of humor tools: for decades hundreds of actors have had to learn to slip on its peel. Is Cattelan’s hoax? Maybe, it’s just that you don’t understand who the recipient is – highlights Ballario -. The collectors who buy it? The critics who praise it or those who attack it? The general public who makes memes about us on the internet or screams scandal? And who knows! Cattelan is a genius and more than a banana he sold an instruction manual: whoever bought it said ‘I’ll eat it’. And he can do it as many times as he wants, because to revive it all you need to do is change the banana every 7/10 days (depending on the color it will take on), place it 175 cm from the ground, with a 20 cm string of a specific gray ribbon which must be attached to form a 37° angle. Whether it is art or not is a question that everyone will answer in their own way, and there will be no wrong answer. Cattelan himself once told me something that alone is enough to explain his genius: ‘More than the true or the false, I am interested in the plausible. And by the time someone finds the meaning of art, I hope I’m long dead.”“.