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Life may imitate art but sometimes art imitates itself.
This is the case for an art exhibit of a banana that has now been eaten for the second time since its debut in 2019.
An art student who attends Seoul National University in South Korea took a bite out of the exhibit named “Comedian” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan inside the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul.
The artwork consists of one ripe banana duct taped to a wall. The student approached the exhibit, unpeeled, ate, and then re-taped the peel back onto the wall.
“The student told the museum he ate it because he was hungry,” a spokesperson for the Leeum Museum told CNN.
The museum later replaced the old banana with a new one, saying that Cattelan had been told about the incident but “didn’t have any reaction to it.” No further action is being taken toward the student.
“Comedian” was first debuted in 2019 during Miami Art Basel where one edition of it sold for $120,000 and two others sold to private collectors.
A performance artist named David Datuna decided to peel and eat the banana in front of the crowds of Basel-goers, causing the exhibit to be removed from the art show.
“Following recommendations, we removed the installation at 9 a.m. this morning,” dealer Emmanual Perrotin of the Perrotin Gallery said via social media in a statement following its removal, citing safety concerns with the crowds that the exhibit drew in. “When Maurizio first told me about his idea, I never once anticipated that it could become what it is today. ‘Comedian,’ with its simple composition, ultimately offered a complex reflection of ourselves. I am eternally grateful to Maurizio for entrusting me with the display of this watershed conceptual work.”
Cattelan is currently running a solo exhibit at the Leeum Museum called “WE” which will run through July 16.