Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan displayed an artwork peice called “Comedian” at The Art Basel Miami art fair earlier this week.”Comedian” consists of a single banana duct taped to a white wall. Two editions of the piece were sold. The first edition of the piece sold for $120,000. On Saturday, a performance artist ate the banana off the wall at Art Basel Miami. The next day, the gallery took down the “Comedian”.”Comedian” can be any banana and any piece of duct tape. Without the artist’s certificate of authenticity, “Comedian” reverts to just being banana on the wall.
“This morning, following recommendations, we removed the installation at 9 a.m., the gallery’s stated in a press release, adding, “Art Basel collaboratively worked with us to station guards and create uniform lines. However, the installation caused several uncontrollable crowd movements and the placement of the work on our booth compromised the safety of the artwork around us, including that of our neighbors.”
But “Comedian” didn’t leave the wall before disaster struck. Performance artist David Datuna reportedly grabbed the banana on display at Art Basel, tore it off the wall, and devoured it on Saturday.
He posted a video to Instagram showing off his feast, titling the performance “Hungry Artist”.