‘Isn’t it taped there to be eaten?’
A South Korean art student ate a piece of art because he was “hungry” after skipping breakfast.
The student, Noh Huyn-soo, at a banana duct-taped to a wall at Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art. This was an art installation called ‘Comedian’ created by artist Maurizio Cattelan.
After eating the piece of fruit, Noh then taped the peel back on the wall.
The whole thing was recorded by his mate.
The museum has said it will not be claiming damages against Noh, with the banana reportedly replaced every two or three days, according to the BBC.
In the clip of the incident, people can be heard shouting “excuse me” as Noh takes the banana off the wall. He doesn’t respond, and onlookers are left in stunned silence as he begins to eat the fruit.
After he places the peel back on the wall, he calmly walks off.
He later told local media that he saw Cattelan’s work as a rebellion against a certain authority. “There could be another rebellion against the rebellion,” the Seoul National University student told KBS.
“Damaging an artwork could also be seen as an artwork, I thought that would be interesting… Isn’t it taped there to be eaten?”
When told about the incident, Mr Cattelan said, “No problem at all”.
This isn’t the first time that someone has chosen to eat ‘Comedian’.
When the first edition of the artwork sold for $120,000 (£91,000) at Art Basel in Miami in 2019, performance artist David Datuna plucked the banana on display and munched it up.
The banana was swiftly replaced and no further action was taken.
Datuna later defended his actions, and said it was his own art performance and not an act of vandalism.
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