Student Who Ate Maurizio Cattelan’s $120K Banana Art Gives His Side Of The Story

Modern art can sometimes be intriguing to look at—or eat, in the case of South Korean student Noh Hyun-Soo. While most people keep a distance from artwork when perusing a gallery, Noh decided to get a taste of what made Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian so famous.
 
Now, in an essay to The Guardian, Noh recounted the experience and cleared the air on some of the rumors that have since been surrounding him and his rather unorthodox method of literally consuming art.
 
The incident occurred during a visit to Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art, where the piece was displayed. Composed simply of a banana duct-taped to a wall, Comedian originally sold for US$120,000 when Perrotin gallery showcased it four years ago. However, safety concerns later caused the work to be removed from Perrotin’s Art Basel booth. 
 
In the essay, Noh admitted that he knew little of Cattelan before this happened, and the banana piece was just about all his knowledge of the artist. He did state that he considers it art, barring its exorbitant price, but acknowledged that such works are subjective. After all, everyone most likely has a differing opinion on whether strapping a banana to the wall is creative expression.
 
While unsure of Cattelan’s thoughts on the art-turned-snack, Noh mentioned that he read an article where the artist responded to the whole debacle as “no problem at all.”
 
Alongside this, he also clarified that he was actually not an art student at all, and instead was studying Religious Studies and Aesthetics at Seoul National University. Additionally, he did not perform the act to protest or even satiate his hunger. Instead, he noted that an “impulse for discovery” fueled his actions. He also stated that he wanted the public to interpret why he did what he did, almost turning the whole spectacle into a sort of art piece by way of consequence.
 
Though he highlighted that the reports stating that this was an act of vandalism or a publicity stunt are true, he admitted that his behavior had brought him attention and fame to some degree, transforming him from an ordinary person to someone that the media is tranfixed in.
 
 
 
[via ARTnews and The Guardian, ID 169026081 © Eivgeniy Alyoshin | Dreamstime.com]