Elke Schmölzer "Comédienne"

"Comédienne"

Elke Schmölzer ICONS 2022

Sweet potato grey fabric tape frame

60x60cm

US-$ 120.000.- or highest bid

The feminine answer to Maurizio Cattelan's "Comedian" * is spontaneous, unique, and ephemeral, and is adorned with a frame. It does not allow itself to be quickly snacked on by a passing visitor**, but first wants to be gently fried in order to fully develop its delicious taste - as a symbol of unleashed femininity it also got rid of the constricting armour tape, which - as a remnant of and vague link to the banana - is still hanging on the edge of the frame.

*At Art Basel Miami Beach 2019 art fair, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan sticks a banana to the wall with grey fabric tape at the stand of his gallery Emmanuel Perrotin. The artwork, entitled "Comedian", has an edition of 3 pieces, which are offered at US$120,000 each. Two of them are also sold there.

**Action artist David Datuna grabs the attached banana unhindered at that Art Basel Miami and consumes it.

Banana versus sweet potato

On 3 May 2022, Galerie Steiner, in Vienna's first district, presents the Austrian answer to Maurizio Cattelan's "Comedian", also known as the 120,000 - dollar - banana at Art Basel Miami 2019, in a special exhibition.

The winking and yet enigmatic "Comédienne" by Elke Schmölzer, female counterpart to the banana, bristles with springtime hormonal power, bursts out of centuries-old bonds of conformity and presents itself in a golden light on the path to a new togetherness.

With her artwork, the Vienna-based artist challenges the viewer to philosophical debate and discourse on topics such as gender roles and their respective typical character traits, the transience and preciousness of the moment, the unleashing of femininity and, last but not least, the mad strategies and prices of the international art market.