Thursday, January 15, 2009

Artist creates sensation by mocking EU nations

Caught this story on the BBC last night:

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.
Today, 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 25 x 25 meters (yards) 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 cross.
The Netherlands is covered by floodwaters pierced only by minarets of mosques.
Polish clergy raise - Iwo Jima-style - the rainbow flag of the gay community in their arch-Catholic country.
And Sweden is - what else? - a box of prefab furniture.
Britain is completely absent, reflecting its traditional aloofness from European integration.

There has been one formal protest: from Bulgaria, which objects to being depicted as a squat toilet.

The Czech government says Cerny lied to them because he was paid euro50,000 ($65,870) to round up the works of European artists representing all 27 EU nations and create a joint project, according to Vondra.

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