Romania as seen by Cerny’s Entropa

Bulgaria as seen by Cerny’s Entropa

If you’re in any way art-sensitive or art-educated, the shortest of visits to Prague will get you familiar with two very controversial Czech artists: David Cerny and Jan Saudek. As a photographer, the latter could not overpopulate the public space with his allegedly immoral creations. However, the former is well-known for his daring public displays, by painting for instance a Soviet tank in bright pink.

Cerny stroke back in glory this time, with a work titled Entropa, commissioned by the Czech EU Presidency, that’s currently displayed in the lobby of the European Council in Brussels. Supposedly a collage bringing together artistic visions of artists representing all 27 EU countries, in reality it is an exclusive work by Cerny that whole-heartedly mocks stereotypes European nations have of one another.

Thus, Italy is displayed as a football match between the North and the South, France as a big strike, Romania as a huge Dracula park and so on and forth. Bulgarians seem to have been the most offended, as Cerny envisioned their country as a Turkish toilet – reminding us all of the Ottoman yoke in the region. As a result, the Czech ambassador in Bulgaria was called up for official explanations.

Not surprisingly, Romanian newspapers are profoundly “offended” by this piece of art, which reminded me of the fuming controversy around the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York this summer. You can read more info here and here.

The international media seems to have a rather moderate stand on the issue, with BBC News simply telling the story behind Entropa and with the International Herald Tribune being equally objective.

Czech officials seem to be discontent with Cerny’s petite joke – namely doing the work all by himself, and not by working together with 26 other actors, but they don’t seem to pick at the content of the installation. Actions are pending, so I wonder if their broad mindedness will take into account the fact that 2009 is the official European Year of Innovation and Creativity…