Czech sculptor Cerny apologises to govt for EU mystification

Entropa that has been installed in Brussels as presentation of Czech EU presidency that started on January 1 depicts the EU member countries in quite a shocking way that challenges well-known European cliches and prejudices.

Cerny claimed he created the map with artists from the 26 other EU countries, but in fact it is a work of his own and a few collaborators, both Czechs and foreigners, he said today.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra told CTK tonight that the information about the authors of the work was an unpleasant surprise.

"The agreement with the Government Office clearly states that the work will be a joint project of artists from 27 EU countries," Vondra said.

"We are considering further procedure in this connection and we will make public further information Thursday," Vondra said.

According to CTK´s information, the Czech Foreign Ministry expects protests from other states, not only from Bulgaria.

Bulgaria, that feels very offended by the work that depicts a Turkish toilet on its map, has already urgently summoned Czech ambassador to Bulgaria Martin Klepetko to the Foreign Ministry in this connection.

It conveyed to him a "sharp protest" against the decoration.

The Czech Foreign Ministry would not speculate before official protests are possibly submitted whether it will have to remove the work.

It has been completed since Monday,but it is to be in full operation on Thursday because some of its parts are kinetic.

The Czech Republic, for instance. is depicted on the map as a blue country "intoxicated" by its President Vaclav Klaus, with a display in the middle where Klaus´s controversial statements are screened.

Klaus is a famous Eurosceptic.

"Grotesque exaggeration and mystification are signs of Czech culture and the creation of false identities is one of the strategies of current arts," the authors say in a press release they sent to CTK.

"We apologise to Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and their offices for not having informed them about what is true and for having misled them," the authors write.

They write they did not want politicians to bear responsibility for this kind of politically incorrect satire.

"We knew that the truth will be uncovered. Still before we wanted to find out whether Europe is capable of laughing at itself," they write.

The depiction of particular parts of Entropa uses artistic methods that are often characterised by provocation.

"The work thus parodies socially committed art that balances on the brink of would-be controversial attacks on national characters and an innocent decoration of official spaces," the authors write.

They say they believe the Brussels environment is capable of an ironic self-reflection and that "European nations and their representatives have a sense of humour."

The long prepared project that has been kept secret aims to present unwanted stereotypes with which particular countries are connected.

It is expected that the work will meet with contradictory reactions.

Non-existent artists represent individual states in the EU "puzzle". They have their names, artificially created identities and some of them their own web pages.

Each of them is the author of a text in which he/she explains the motivation of their participation in the joint project.

Cerny and his colleagues claim they first wanted to address 27 European artists, but they eventually failed for time, production and financial reasons.

That is why they decided without the knowledge of the Foreign Ministry to produce fictitious artists to represent individual European national and artistic stereotypes, they write.

Profile of Czech author of controversial map of Europe, Cerny

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz