Maurizio Cattelan

Think of the jesters in the courts: they were entrusted with the task of giving bad news to their royal overlords that no one else would dare deliver, and they were heard. That is why I believe that art and comedy are two very similar concepts in essence, rather than different ones.

Humour works like a good work of art does: they are both intended to have you look and think twice.

All works that include ephemeral materials come with instructions, similar to the way that a printer or a dishwasher needs an instructions manual. I see it as the same thing. There's nothing too conceptual about Comedian, it's all about the actual object itself.

Irony stings but cleans. It doesn't seek laughs; it makes space. Certain gestures shock only because the system is anesthetized.

A good joke hurts. Laughter enters lightly, delaying the moment you realize what you're seeing.

Art shouldn't wash anything away. I don't want people leaving reassured or clutching a moral. If something sticks, let it be friction—a doubt that keeps turning while you're already elsewhere.

Art isn't here to mend or explain; it leaves you in a state without solutions. It isn't therapy; it's an active ingredient. Art doesn't purify—it contaminates.

Rules are simply obstacles to be jumped like in a horse race, higher and higher every time. Never give an artist like me carte blanche, he would think it's simply toilet paper.

You are saying it, not me. To me it is a natural thing that I just keep doing, the way fish swim and birds fly.

Originality is an overrated concept, and a bit old-fashioned, I believe.

Fame is a strange beast. And as with all beasts, you are the prey, not the predator.

Not at all but for some reason people think it is… I find it quite tragic.

My aim is to be as open and as incomprehensible as possible. There has to be a perfect balance between open and shut.

Sorry. Can't help you there. I don't know who I am.

I suppose when I do know the therapy will be over.

If in the course of my career I had found answers, not to tell the truth, I would have stopped working…

Art has always been between a pandemic and a war. The period we are going through, seen from the historical perspective of art, is just one of the many terrible moments in human history. Art is not located in a different place, it is in the world.

The art market is a market like any other and works in the same way: the law of supply and demand is the only law that matters and this does not make it very exciting.

My practice is based on communication, so in this way the digital era might help it thrive.

I never pick a material to be the good or the bad guy. I choose what the idea needs, even if it looks out of fashion. Marble is no longer eternal; gold no longer shines the same. Some materials feel almost embarrassing now, and that's why I like them.