A banana that was taped to the wall as part of a $120,000 art installation met its match when a student got a bit peckish and helped himself to a bite. Modern art is a pretty divisive subject, with some believing that it is truly beautiful that simple things can be perceived so deeply, whereas others take it at face value and think it's all nonsense. There's something quite peculiar about going to a modern art museum and seeing people stare at an image of a red circle that could have been created in Microsoft Paint. But whether you love it or hate it, there is a big calling for it, and a recent installation involving a single banana and a piece of tape has caught the public's attention. <img class="size-full wp-image-1263209614" src="https://img.vt.co/2023/05/2KBEJGG-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="1707" height="2560" />[[imagecaption|| The installation was a piece by the artist Maurizio Cattelan. Credit: Mairo Cinquetti / Alamy]] The piece of art, which is quite literally a banana taped to a wall, is the work of renowned Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, as per the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/may/01/banana-drama-hungry-south-korean-student-eats-120000-artwork" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Guardian</a>. This is quite staggering considering that the bananas cost around 20 cents a piece and get replaced every two days. The installation, which was on display at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, met its maker when Noh Huyn-soo got a little peckish. The South Korean student was filmed removing the banana from the wall and eating it in front of stunned onlookers, before putting the peel back on the wall and securing it with the tape, As reported by the <a href="https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20230430000134" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Korea Herald</a>, Huyn-soo said: "Damaging a work of modern art could also be [interpreted as] artwork," before saying that he reattached it to the wall as a joke. When questioned on his motivation for eating the banana, he simply replied that he was "hungry". The artist, Cattelan, was reportedly told about what had happened and simply shrugged it off while stating that it was "not a problem". This isn't the first time that a piece of banana art has been eaten. In 2019, the performance artist David Datuna scoffed the fruit in Miami. The first two versions of the artwork that were on display at the Miami Art Basel sold for $120,000 and another had been put up for sale for $150,000 before Datuna got his hands on it. [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvwfWyU9Gfc]] Datuna opened up to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/dec/11/david-datuna-120000-banana-interview-art-basel-miami" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Guardian</a> as to why he ate the valuable art, stating: "I have traveled in 67 countries around the world in the last three years, and I see how people live. Millions are dying without food. Then he puts three bananas on the wall for half a million dollars?" The performance artist revealed that he had huge respect for Cattelan and his work, but he took issue with the amount of money being generated from a banana taped to a wall. We sure hope that the banana tasted good considering how much it was worth! <h6>Featured image credit: WILDLIFE GmbH / Alamy</h6>

'Hungry' student eats $120,000 banana art exhibition

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