Maurizio Cattelan

I don't consider myself an artist, but more of a trickster.

Art is like a game in which you play with the unconscious, but without rules.

I want my art to be irreverent and playful, but also thought-provoking.

Don't take art too seriously. It's meant to challenge and entertain.

I believe in the value of artistic freedom and the power of satire.

Nothing is off-limits in the realm of art. It's a space for ultimate freedom.

I enjoy challenging authority and subverting the status quo through my work.

I don't design. I don't paint. I absolutely never touch my works.

My ideas are all the same but look different.

I was a loser, most concerned with making a living. It took me 30 years to understand... I had to reinvent a system, find a way out, and set some rules that could work for me and a few others. I guess in the end that's what we all are trying to do.

Art is a matter of statistics. It's not about individuals. It's about people.

So, when you fill a gallery with dirt and someone comes along waving wads of bills, it's difficult not to take them because they become a tangible acknowledgement that what you've been doing actually makes sense.

The market is like a machine that needs to be constantly excited. It needs to constantly produce wealth and more excitement.

Life is often tragic and comedic at the same time, and my works address these two facets. I use playfulness to express myself or to approach sensitive subjects, but not to make fun of anyone or to make people laugh.

To me, Comedian was not a joke; it was a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value. At art fairs, speed and business reign, so I saw it like this: if I had to be at a fair, I could sell a banana like others sell their paintings. I could play within the system, but with my rules.

I am always at risk of making a fool of myself because if no one reacts to the work then it would not work.

We live in a society where we are under constant surveillance, like being in The Truman Show; up to the very end you don't know if you're the subject or object of what's going on.

Value is a word I find hard to define... for art, I prefer to talk about relevance.

I've always thought that most of the time when people laugh it is not just at a joke; it's at the tragic ridiculousness of the situation, that kind of laughter where if you don't laugh, you'll just cry.

Humour and irony include tragedy; essentially, they are just two sides of the same coin, and jokes can be terribly serious, and revealing.