‘A Banana Is Worth More Than Us’: Maurizio Cattelan’s $120k Fruit Art Has Sparked an Uprising Among Miami’s Underpaid Janitors

Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous
banana-taped-to-the-wall continues to reverberate well beyond the
art world. The instantly iconic work is now the symbol of a heated
activist uprising of Miami-based janitorial workers, in a movement
that’s being dubbed “the platanito protest.” 

Sporting matching purple union
shirts with bananas taped to their fronts, janitors marched in
downtown Miami today in protest of low wages and working conditions
in their industry.

The $120,000 price tag that
accompanied Comedian, Cattelan’s duct-taped banana,
prompted the rally, with participants comparing themselves and
their labor to the value of the fruit: “How much are we worth? A banana is worth more
than us, apparently,” Felipa Cardenas, who joined the protest after
a morning cleaning shift, said to the Miami New
Times. “Our work is
something people don’t value; they look at us like we’re nothing.
But it’s a job with dignity, and it’s tough work. We deserve better
payment.”

Cardenas earns $8.46 an hour
cleaning a luxury office building in downtown Miami. She says her
meager salary cannot support rent or utility bills. According to a
report by UCLA’s Center for Community Knowledge, nearly 60 percent
of subcontracted janitors in Miami live near or below the federal
poverty line.

Ana Tinsly, a union spokeswoman
for the Florida division of 32BJ SEIU, which represents more than
1,200 janitors in the area, elaborated on the banana-born protest:
“The platanito
protest is to illustrate the
absurdity of someone spending tens of thousands on a banana taped
to a wall in a city where janitors earn so little they can’t afford
to feed their families,” she said.

“Miami should not be a
playground for the rich; it should be a place where all residents
can earn a decent living and raise their families,” she
concluded. 

The post ‘A Banana Is Worth More Than Us’: Maurizio
Cattelan’s $120k Fruit Art Has Sparked an Uprising Among Miami’s
Underpaid Janitors appeared first on artnet News.