The Serralves Foundation has announced the opening of an exhibition scheduled for July 3 at 10 p.m., with free entry. Curated by museum director Philippe Vergne, “Whisper” will run until January 11, 2026, aiming to create a “unique dialogue between the artist’s works and the exhibition space.”
The promotional text stated that the selected works for “Whisper” highlight Cattelan’s fascination with history — its traumas, transformations, and iconic figures. The artist is particularly interested in transitional moments: between childhood and adulthood, life and death, laughter and crying, or different historical periods. These ambiguous and fleeting states are central to his visual language, often transformed into iconic images.”
The foundation also emphasized that Cattelan’s works “are not just placed but staged — strategically positioned to engage the viewer and redefine the surrounding environment.”
During the program presentation for 2025 in December, Vergne mentioned the exhibition would include works such as “Daddy, Daddy,” featuring a drowned Pinocchio doll in a fountain, “La Nona ora,” depicting an image of Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite, and the well-known “Comedian,” a banana taped to a wall.
At the time, in statements to Lusa, the museum director noted that with “Comedian,” Maurizio Cattelan created a piece that forces spectators to take a stance. “It is a piece of art that manages to embody fascination with many aspects of everyday life,” Vergne said. He explained, “Firstly, the fascination with art. It’s incredible that such a simple object has been able, over the last two years, to capture people’s attention. Related is the desire for people to connect with the work, either positively or negatively. Cattelan invented a sign that almost forces people to take a stance, whether they like art or not, like bananas, think it’s spectacular, find it ridiculous, want to eat it, it doesn’t matter.”
In November, one example of the work was auctioned in New York for $6.2 million (€5.9 million) to a cryptocurrency entrepreneur.
Since its initial showing in 2019 at an art fair, where it sold for around $120,000, “Comedian” has become a global phenomenon with a significant impact “on contemporary cultural awareness,” Sotheby’s stated in a press release at the time.
During the auction, as reported by The New York Times, Cattelan — who did not receive any proceeds from the auction since the seller was a collector and not the artist — claimed, “The auction made what started as a statement in Basel even more of an absurd global spectacle. Thus, the piece becomes self-reflective: the higher the price, the more it reinforces the original concept.”
