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Is it art or is it a diplomatic incident?
Source: Agencies |
January 16, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IS it a joke? A very expensive hoax? A sly, shockingly satirical look at the 27 nations that make up the European Union?
Whatever one's reaction, the new installation celebrating the Czech Republic's six-month presidency of the European Union has achieved the ultimate accomplishment of any piece of art - create a sensation.
Yesterday, the Czech deputy premier, Alexandr Vondra, came to Brussels to see for himself what the brouhaha at the EU's headquarters was all about.
"Entropa" - by David Cerny, a Czech artist who is no stranger to controversy - dominates the lobby of the EU's Justus Lipsius Building. Measuring 625 square meters, it shows the outlines of EU nations on a tubular grid showing each nation, warts and all. The artist says it is just tongue-in-cheek stuff.
His installation shows France as being on strike, Italy a land where soccer is an "auto-erotic system of sensational spectacle" and Germany laced by autobahns roughly in the shape of a swastika.
The Netherlands is covered by floodwaters pierced only by the minarets of mosques.
Polish clergy raise - Iwo Jima-style - the rainbow flag of the gay community in their arch-Catholic country, and Sweden is a box of prefab furniture.
Britain is completely absent, reflecting its traditional aloofness from European integration.
The Czech government says Cerny lied to them because he was paid 50,000 euros (US$65,870) to round up the works of European artists and create a joint project, according to Vondra.
Whatever one's reaction, the new installation celebrating the Czech Republic's six-month presidency of the European Union has achieved the ultimate accomplishment of any piece of art - create a sensation.
Yesterday, the Czech deputy premier, Alexandr Vondra, came to Brussels to see for himself what the brouhaha at the EU's headquarters was all about.
"Entropa" - by David Cerny, a Czech artist who is no stranger to controversy - dominates the lobby of the EU's Justus Lipsius Building. Measuring 625 square meters, it shows the outlines of EU nations on a tubular grid showing each nation, warts and all. The artist says it is just tongue-in-cheek stuff.
His installation shows France as being on strike, Italy a land where soccer is an "auto-erotic system of sensational spectacle" and Germany laced by autobahns roughly in the shape of a swastika.
The Netherlands is covered by floodwaters pierced only by the minarets of mosques.
Polish clergy raise - Iwo Jima-style - the rainbow flag of the gay community in their arch-Catholic country, and Sweden is a box of prefab furniture.
Britain is completely absent, reflecting its traditional aloofness from European integration.
The Czech government says Cerny lied to them because he was paid 50,000 euros (US$65,870) to round up the works of European artists and create a joint project, according to Vondra.
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