Undoubtedly, it is a work Maurice Katelana - “Comedian” - a banana stuck to the wall with electrical tape, succeeded in what was the artist's playful intention, since the work was sold for as much as 6,2 million dollars, and one can really talk about something comical, baroquely exaggerated, about the end of valuation and the beginning of capitalization postmodernist art, all the more because - "we arrive at such a relativity that no historicism could dream of"(Emmanuel Levinas).
Popular culture deals with meaning and meaning, content and message, by basing everything on contingency. Decoration instead of description, something `sweet` instead of a metaphysical sign that rests on a relational character (language is the very being of ethics because it is addressed/devoted to the Other, since it establishes me in myself and the world, it is replaced by superficial and incidental communication). If we see that culture is not only power but also violence (which we probably should have been familiar with by now), then it becomes clearer why everything is invested in management, promotion strategy, in the ideological narrative that modern man does not know what he wants until he throws himself/ rush to the market. So: it is not important what is sold, but the art of how it is done.
Let's attach here a slightly longer quote from Terry Eagltona ( "What after theory?”): “In some cultural circles, the politics of masturbation fascinates more than the politics of the Middle East. Socialism lost, and surrendered to sadomasochism. Among students and scholars of culture, the body is an incredibly fashionable topic, but it is usually an erotic body, not a starved one."
It should be noted right away that this work by T. Eagleton was published in 2005, and that until today it only confirms what could be said to have been presented superficially, with a professorial overview of the situation, however: the performance exposes a pornographic and agonizing, promiscuous and lonely body , socialism surrenders to a theory that opposes the ever-powerful techno-feudalism and neo-fascism to the possibility of the radical left, while politics in the Middle East is led by genocidal interventions in which civilians pay for war for territories with their lives. To that extent, starting from the title itself, we can therefore ask this question: what after a work like "Comedian? "
The irrevocable banality of the banana attracts the rich who are ready to give so many millions and with that gesture call art itself into question, so it only now becomes clear why Ornament on a personal level, he unyieldingly nurtured only high, classical and primarily intellectual art. It is quite certain that this democratization, that this globalization and mass medialization of art means that it must first of all be able to be - a spectacular event, and everything else, first of all an aesthetic articulation if something like that is more necessary. (Katelan exhibited a banana stuck to the wall with the most ordinary electrical tape, and critics interpreted it as a mirror facing the current state of art, but also as an act of post-avant-garde provocation addressed to the ultra-rich collectors who came to the exhibition determined to shell out up to 100 million dollars for a work behind which today stands the prestigious name of postmodern or popular art.)
"Weak opinion"
Starting from the fact that, indeed, there is no authentic source of postmodernism, art now itself `trades` with large and equally (at the same time) insignificant symbols, Katelan himself moves from work - "The Ninth Hour” in which we see the Pope struck by a comet lying down, to “The Comedian”, the banana he has already made famous Andy Warhol when he set the cover for the band's album as a solution The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967.
In an interview, Mauricio Katelan says: “Comedian it was no joke; it was an honest comment on what I find valuable. Art fairs are about speed and business, so I saw it this way - if I have to be at a fair, I can sell bananas like other people sell paintings.” So: "The Comedian" is really not a joke as a work, moreover, but an essential understanding and interpretation of the spirit and method as it functions art fair forcing the speed of business (as there is speed of capital, speed of communication, speed of images, speed of body). If we now try to interpret the fetishized object as a metaphor for the phallus, then what can we say about - Karmin, the way he twirls the lipstick out to apply it over the woman's lips, which is therefore a much more naked allusion to the male organ, while an object such as scissors can be interpreted as a castration tool, etc.
No: the banana is certainly not an art object in this case that seeks to be transcended to a higher level (the process of its rotting is comical in relation to the value with which it was paid, and yet: the banana is also like capital, something perishable, even illusory, always already changeable, the value of which cannot therefore be determined), on the contrary, it is a food product that stands - on the other side of the myth about the apple, the fruit that cost us falls into History.
The movie "Rubber” (2010) - we won't write anything about it - manages to "make" me watch it again in the hours that go by for no reason, because the film itself is based on absurdity and was made apparently for no reason at all. It is not about the famous ending of the film (that postmodern proclaiming the end should, indeed, be brought to an end once), perhaps rather it raises the question: why, then, a film at all? Or: why not a movie like this?! Anyway, every question about meaning is equally meaningless, regardless of whether we address it to this film or to Katelan's work "The Comedian", which is so direct - more direct than any plastic - that, after all, it must produce some reaction in us, implying the absence of any what reactions.
Postmodernism must be credited for having destroyed the concept - sublime, clarified that we belong to a time whose content, due to the rule of relativism and contingency, refuses to be contextualized and defined, so that it can be referred to absolutely anything, postmodernism as an Americanized invention deconstructed the culture of Europe! In communication with business, art is now so aware of its role that much sooner it reduces its mission to current affairs and market demand, agreeing to the dictum of big capital. (Renaissance was iconic of religious motifs, postmodern emblem of ubiquitous and consumerism, liberation to make sense of anything, simply, it now only explicitly delivers or conveys the state of things.)
If the mentioned film is created `for no reason at all', what, however, if it is possible to write about the work "The Comedian" only if we have no reason for it, assuming that the work refers to the banality that dominates contemporary art? The fact that, nevertheless, the work was sold for 6,2 million dollars, allows the artist to open the question related to the future of art in general, precisely because this is a work that is being created , as a hasty reaction to what is meant by an art fair, which exists solely for circular trade.
Honestly speaking, wouldn't you then? Žižek the book "Hegel in the shadow of dialectical materialism"should be read alongside the book"Žižek`s jockes - Did you hear the one about Hegel and negation?” Only then would we perhaps realize how it is possible for an apocalypse to unfold before our eyes, to which we are totally indifferent.
Bonus video:
