An art student of the Seoul National University ate a banana that was roughly worth Rs 1 crore (Rs 98,20,872) at Seoul's Leeum Museum of Art because he was hungry. The banana was an exhibit in 'Comedian', an installation by artist Maurizio Cattelan. It was a part of Cattelan's 'WE' exhibition. The 'art piece' featured a fully ripe banana that had been affixed to the wall using duct tape. Deja-vu moment? Yes, the 'art piece' has been eaten previously as well when performance artist David Datuna startled spectators at the Art Basel event in Miami in 2019 by removing the banana from its place on display and eating it.
The student at Seoul's Leeum Museum of Art was identified as Noh Huyn-soo who approached the exhibit, unpeeled, ate, and then re-taped the peel of the banana back onto the wall, reported BBC. A video of the incident has been doing rounds on social media.
When the student was asked why he did it, Soo replied by saying that he ate it because he was hungry. Despite the act, no action was taken against the student. A museum spokesperson while talking to CNN said, "The student told the museum he ate it because he was hungry. It happened suddenly, so no special action was taken. The artist (Cattelan) was informed of the incident, but he didn't have any reaction to it."
According to BBC, the museum swiftly replaced the eaten banana with a new one.
Later when he was interviewed by local media, he said that he saw Cattelan's work as a rebellion against a certain authority. While talking to KBS News, he said, "There could be another rebellion against the rebellion. Damaging an artwork could also be seen as an artwork, I thought that would be interesting... Isn't it taped there to be eaten?"