What do sharks and pop culture memes have in common? Not a lot you might be thinking. Although Jaws and a photo of Kim K on the red carpet with a funny caption might seem about as far away from each other as two things can get, they are both elements that Equifruit draws on in our marketing strategy to get fair pay for banana farmers into the hearts and minds of North American shoppers.
Archivos del Autor: Blanca Serrano Ortiz
On November 25, the banana brand Chiquita lit up Instagram with eye-catching yellow stories, offering a chance to win free tickets to Art Basel Miami Beach. The deal was simple: share your email address for a shot at a pair of one-day passes. The next day, the company posted a banana adorned with stickers reading “Proud Partner of Art Basel Miami Beach.” As the authors of Banana Craze, an award-winning digital humanities project on the banana monoculture in contemporary Latin American art, we were stunned. Chiquita’s raffle felt like a gimmick — a cruel joke.
Juanita Solano es profesora del Departamento de Historia del Arte en la Universidad de los Andes y Blanca Serrano es directora de proyectos en el Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA).
Ambas son co-autoras de La fiebre del banano/Banana Craze y doctoras en Historia del Arte por The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
The tragicomic saga of Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana is reaching new highs (and lows) at Miami Art Week.
Most prominent is the presence of Chiquita itself at Art Basel Miami Beach as a first-time official partner. During the VIP preview, the American banana mega-producer rolled up fruit carts and blue-and-yellow swag to the entrances of the convention centre to share its “joyful and unmistakable spirit” and celebrate the “longstanding connection between bananas and the art world”, the company said in a statement.
The presence of Chiquita Banana as an official sponsor introduces a dissonance that does not go unnoticed: can a company with a history of violence become a legitimate promoter of art that has historically questioned it?