22.11.02024

Post photo: Microphone | © Daniel Friesenecker from Pixabay

Banana

Most people know what a banana republic is. Some are even convinced that they live in one themselves. Many East Germans still have a very special relationship with this tropical fruit, at least since they were constantly associated with it.

By the way, how could one determine the cardinal directions in Berlin before 1989? One simply placed a banana on the wall; where it was bitten was east.

This Wednesday, a banana glued to the wall was auctioned at Sotheby's New York as a bizarre sculpture called "Comedian." Maurizio Cattelan had stuck this banana to the wall from bottom left to top right with a silvery adhesive strip. He had bought the fruit locally in New York; I could not find out where he got the adhesive tape from.

Maurizio Cattelan already signed a golden toilet called “America” allegedly for Donald Trump thought responsible, which he did not want and which was actually exhibited and used for almost a year between 2016 and 2017 as a long-term performance in a toilet room of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Why now Maurizio Cattelan The question of what came up with the banana, especially in this day and age, is probably the most exciting art question of the year. The questions of what art actually is or what art is allowed to do have already been answered many times and in detail by all kinds of people.

And if you think everyone laughed for a moment, you are very much mistaken. A crypto entrepreneur won the bid for 6 million US dollars and can now feel like a VIP. Especially because the work of art was for sale for 2 dollars just five years ago and sparked controversy at Art Basel Miami Beach in 120.

Anyone who has ever eaten a (whole) banana knows that it must be a different banana in New York. What is perhaps less well known is that at least the work of art "Comedian" comes with instructions that oblige the art connoisseur who owns the work of art to replace the perishable fruit with a fresh one every two days.

Addendum

Motivated by the reaction of a reader, I am adding a corresponding video from Harry Belafonte in the menu.

I still like this song in the cinema version of Tim Burton preferably.

Others

Yesterday's dancing meant that we were able to finalize the program for the upcoming European Ball. As a little surprise, an Argentine tango will be played at least once - the first couples have expressed their willingness to take part.

It is gratifying that one of my ideas has now been realised. First I wanted to get the EUROPA-UNION Heilbronn to organise a “Europe Index” in Baden-Württemberg, but it quickly became clear that a district association was too small for this. So I got the regional association excited about this idea. After a good two years of planning and with the help of other organisers, we have now succeeded in launching a “Europe Index”.European Prize for Municipalities – Recognizing and raising visibility for municipal European work“ to start.

Now I'll see how the European Prize for Municipalities will be received. I'm also curious to see whether the Heilbronn city administration will get involved.

The SWR studio, which was located in the shopping center for decades, is now located in the Schwabenhof. There is more space there for the approximately 40 employees and the opportunity has been taken to bring the studio technology up to date. The only drawback is that the studio is no longer in the city center, which means longer journeys for journalists and others.

On April 1, 1973, five employees started work in the SWR Studio Heilbronn. Shortly afterwards, I was able to see it for the first time with my father, and later I was a happy guest there as an interview partner. The celebration for the 50th anniversary of the SWR Studio Heilbronn was quite logically postponed to the date of the inauguration of the multimedia workstations in the Schwabenhof and will now be held in the coming days.

Eichgasse

As if out of nowhere, we citizens find out that Eichgasse is to be renovated as early as 2025, once again. Not so long ago, a citizen of Heilbronn celebrated himself as an emperor with a pedestal, which is what you do as a citizen of the imperial city.

I do have an idea: you could build on that and turn Eichgasse into Heilbronn's Walk of Fame, where every VIP can press their hands and feet into the asphalt. If you then reward the bourgeois ambition with a small fee, you could even make money with this renovation.

Meanwhile, we citizens are once again being prepared for the fact that renovation of Turmstraße will continue to be nothing. The state funds earmarked for this purpose were instead spent on competitions and the usual Heilbronn shenanigans.

"I had already noticed that in the lowest and highest levels of society the insane often go unpunished."

Charles Bukowski (1988: 331)

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