Anamnesis of the banana of Cattelan: the work of the artist Maurizio Cattelan entitled Comedian created in 2019 represents a banana « alive » taped to a white wall with adhesive tape. She had caused scandal and buzz, making part of the public laugh. The goal was achieved: a French collector then bought it for 120,000 euros, skyrocketing the price of this ordinary fruit.
The original Cattelan banana, which has a limited shelf life of approximately seven days, must be replaced regularly with other bananas. Rottable, disposable and replaceable work. One banana chases the other! A provocative artist, Cattelan justifies the price of his banana by the idea, the kinship of which he was also obliged to justify before the courts. Indeed, Cattelan was accused of plagiarism by the artist Joe Monford regarding his work dating from 2000: Banana and orange. It should be noted that as early as 2019, the banana was devoured at Art Basel Miami Beach by a Georgian artist “hungry” for notoriety then, again in 2023, by a Korean.
Sotheby’s on the move
In November 2024, the prestigious house Sotheby’s re-offered the banana for sale, this time estimating it between 1 and 1.5 million dollars. In order to increase her notoriety and therefore her price, like a rockstar, she went on a three-week world tour. The health of the fruit during this grueling journey has not been communicated. During the sale on November 20, 2024 at Sotheby’s New York, the banana shattered its estimate, reaching the astronomical sum of $6.2 million including fees. The lucky owner is Chinese billionaire Justin Sun, founder of the Tron cryptocurrency.
Before the sale, it seems that Sotheby’s would have clarified that the work could be paid for in cryptocurrency. Probably a calculated media stunt, the payment by an immaterial currency fitting like a glove to the wind part of the oh-so-ephemeral work! This successful communications operation coupled with a financial record allows the Chinese billionaire to declare that he is not only buying a work of art – what definition does he give? – but a cultural phenomenon connecting the world of art, internet and cryptocurrencies… We are right in the system described by Aude de Kerros.
Mediating the devouring of his six million euro banana, the billionaire tells the world that the misery of those who have nothing to eat does not matter to him, money is worth nothing to him. By ingesting the fruit, he fantastically appropriates a “cultural phenomenon” in his own words, globalized by a delusional hubris.
The imposture of contemporary art that has been rampant for more than 50 years continues to die. It promotes emptiness, intellectual fraud under the cover of the so-called concept. The right-thinking of this system in which the fashion of billionaires dictating the works to buy, bankable, speculative in connection with galleries and international auction houses, the media, the internet has reached its limit. The public is not mistaken.
Between ready-made and praise of the hand, we must choose
Duchamp’s urinal (1917) proclaiming the death of art, Pier Manzoni’s cans of shit, Salvatore Garan’s invisible sculpture, Bansky’s torn work… are all examples created by men (coincidence? ) denouncing at best the absurdity of a consumer society at worst advocating the destruction of a personal, individual, intimate art. These provocative men propagating “non-work”, the “ready-made” creations are at the same time the financial beneficiaries of the art market system. The art of eating and consuming for all, accompanied by technology and AI, is meaningless, fake, artificial in which food and feces are objects of demand. Nothing to do with the objects of desire linked to sublimation and transcendence.
Today, the art of deconstruction must be fought because not everything in art is equal! Authentic and sincere art transcending the ages must be resurrected by highlighting the essential work of the intelligent and unique hand of Man.
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