Maurizio Cattelan has used an interview with The Guardian to push back against his image as the art world's most mischievous prankster, as the Italian artist's first major German solo exhibition, "NIGHT", continues at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie through March 7, 2027. Best known for Comedian (2019) — a banana taped to a gallery wall — Cattelan said the laughter has obscured the intent: "My work has always been serious. The problem is people often stop at the joke."

"NIGHT", which opened on September 10, brings together landmark works from more than three decades of his career alongside new site-specific commissions made for Mies van der Rohe's glass-and-steel building. Staged on the occasion of the 2026 Preis der Nationalgalerie, one of Germany's leading contemporary art prizes, the exhibition is curated by Lisa Botti and Klaus Biesenbach, and pairs historical pieces with new productions conceived for the museum's celebrated glass pavilion.

The profile also surfaced unlikely biographical detail from Cattelan's early years in Berlin, when — before art-world fame — he worked as a postman, a mortuary attendant and a sperm donor. The jobs add an unexpected footnote to an artist who has long blurred the line between persona and reality, compressing death and life into a single resume.

Asked what comes next, Cattelan was characteristically elusive. He said he has no foundation, no studio — and never has had one — and no family. Building a legacy, he suggested, "would be like being so conscious about yourself that you have these constructions."