Name: 15万ドルのバナナ (The $150,000 Banana)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T08:37:30.000Z
Duration: 12 min 43 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

Now I'm sure you've already heard about the banana duct-taped to a wall at an art

And the multitudes who've created their own gestures in response.

You might already have a firm opinion about it all, too.

But I'd like to ask you to clear away for a moment what you know or think you know about

this thing that's happened, and consider it with me anew.

What do we think of this $150,000 banana?

This real banana, attached to the wall with a length of standard issue silver duct tape,

is titled Comedian, and it the brainchild of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.

It was presented in his gallery's booth at the 2019 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach,

an art fair that's been held annually in Miami since 2002.

Galleries from around the world apply to have the privilege of paying for space to display

their wares within the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Then, for a handful of days in early December, a bunch of mostly affluent people descend

on the fair and the many others shows, events, and parties that have sprung up around it.

Collectors come to buy art, of course, but anyone who can afford a ticket--starting at

$50--can come just to look at a ton of art and witness the fair as a fascinating sociological

This is all to say that Comedian was just one very small work of art in booth D24 in

a loud and crowded convention center filled with thousands of works of art, many of them

But it didn't take long after the doors opened for the banana to attract attention...

Galerie Perrotin was offering three editions of the work for $120,000 each.

Two of those sold very quickly, and then the dealer raised the price to $150,000 for the

There were an additional two “artist proofs” of Comedian that were both sold to museums

Now “artist proofs” are generally the small number of prints in a limited edition

that an artist hangs on to for their own collection, or to hold back and sell later on to someone

They're often regarded as special and can sell for more than the original edition, even

though, yes, they are technically the exact same.

And this is very funny in the case of Comedian because it's a conceptual artwork!

The buyers did not purchase actual bananas and duct tape.

They paid 120 or 150,000 dollars for an idea.

All they're getting is a certificate of authenticity that proves it's a verified

artwork by Maurizio Cattelan, and instructions for how to install it.

Can anyone who wants to buy a banana from the grocery store and  tape it to the wall

But only people with the certificate are technically owners of Comedian, which they can replenish

as often as needed with a fresh banana and duct tape.

The museums that own the certificate are the only ones who can rightfully display a banana

duct taped to a wall this way, and put a label next to it with Cattelan's name on it.

I'm guessing they'll have the right to loan out the certificate to other institutions

too, who will likely be clamoring to get in on a piece of the banana action.

This may sound absurd, but there are many examples of this kind of thing in the history

It's what allows museums and individuals to own and exhibit wall drawings by Sol LeWitt,

who issued certificates of authenticity with each work, along with detailed diagrams and

instructions for how they should be installed.

You didn't need LeWitt to paint the walls himself when he was alive or even now that

If you move or want to show the wall drawing somewhere else, you have to paint over or

destroy the old wall drawing, and have it remade in the new location according to specification.

This is what is simultaneously so maddening and hilarious about Cattelan's banana.

He has selected one of the most common and easily accessible of objects, and through

will and clout and roguish ingenuity, has transformed nothing into something of value.

All artists perform a type of alchemy when they turn humble materials into items people

But Comedian sets this reality into high relief, especially with its strategic placement in

the context of a sceney art fair, calling out the absurdly inflated art market and the

narrow sliver of the privileged population that participates in it.

But it's not actually nothing that the buyers of Comedian receive with their purchase.

They now own a valuable artwork by Maurizio Cattelan.

The same Cattelan who has been long been pulling art pranks and exhibiting in respected museums

He made a solid gold fully-functional toilet titled America in 2016 that for a time was

available for use in a bathroom at the Guggenheim in New York.

That is, until it was stolen when on loan for an exhibition in England.

When viewed in the context of his sculpture of Pope John Paul II being struck by a meteorite,

or his miniature figure of Hitler kneeling in repentance, the banana is pretty inoffensive

subject matter, even with its obvious phallic allusions.

But Comedian is firmly in the Cattelan tradition of exploiting and exposing the things we love,

It pokes fun at our desire for art to be unique, original, or something we couldn't do ourselves.

And for art buyers and sellers, it laughs at their susceptibility to hype, name recognition,

Cattalan has a track record for involving his galleries in his exploits, too.

In 1995, he designed a costume for his dealer Emmanuel Perrotin to wear throughout the run

And in 1999, he duct taped gallerist Massimo de Carlo to the wall for the entire 2-hour

So the duct tape is an art world in-joke, and also something that ties Comedian clearly

Oh and the guy really likes to hang things, by the way.

For his 2011 retrospective at the Guggenheim, Cattelan suspended all of his works from the

ceiling of the rotunda instead of putting them along the walls like usual.

Comedian also has plenty of ties to art history, for those who care about that sort of thing.

Marcel Duchamp was the famed progenitor of the readymade, credited as the first to put

a non-art object into a gallery and call it art, and Cattelan's banana is certainly

And very many artists have put bananas and images of bananas to use, like Andy Warhol

did in 1967 for his Velvet Underground & Nico album cover, complete with peelable sticker.

字幕リスト動画再生

15万ドルのバナナ (The $150,000 Banana)

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