MC The Joker

He’s been art-world famous for years, but it took a banana and some duct tape to make Maurizio Cattelan famous-famous. Here, the provocative artist shares his thoughts on creating the piece, the world’s reaction to it and the real value of art.

- Julie Belcove

For all the fuss made over the exponential growth of the contemporary art world – fairs and biennials popping up around the globe, finance experts labelling art an ‘asset class’, hours-long lines for Yayoi Kusama’s psychedelic Infinity Mirror Rooms and other experiential, Instagram-worthy phenomena – a paltry few 21st-century artists have succeeded in permeating mainstream culture. Sure, the pseudonymous Banksy made headlines when he rigged a picture frame to shred one of his paintings after the hammer fell at Sotheby’s, though the media coverage focused on the destruction of an expensive object and its potential rise in value as a result. And Marina Abramović was lampooned on Sex and the City for her 12-day stint living on display at Sean Kelly Gallery, but most fans of the TV show probably assumed the boundary-pushing performance was invented in the writers’ room. Her subsequent staring contests at the Museum of Modern Art led to a dance with Jay-Z, foreheads touching, in his video for Picasso Baby, but again, recognition was the domain of insiders only. Outside the art world, Banksy’s stunt and Abramović’s celebrity following qualify merely as Warholian 15 minutes of fame.

This past December, however, Maurizio Cattelan not only joined the ranks of household names when his latest piece appeared at Art Basel Miami Beach, but got there by dint of the artwork. Outrageous, provocative, hilarious and anger-inducing, it forced its way under people’s skin. The piece consisted of a yellow banana stuck to the wall with a strip of silver duct tape. That was it. Slyly titling the work