Controversial Entropa Exhibition in Brussels

On 15 January 2009, to mark the beginning of its six-month presidency of the European Union, the Czech Republic presented a modern art installation called 'Entropa' on the premises of the European Council in Brussels. “Entropa” represents a sculpture made up by twenty-seven 3-D maps of the European Union's members, each of them using common stereotypes or prejudices referring to the respective nation. See all the images here.


Until the day of the launch, the authors were believed to be twenty-seven artists from each of the EU's member-states, but it turned out that Entropa has only one author - the well known Czech conceptual artist, David Cerny. The installation has provoked both criticism and admiration.


It has also led to a diplomatic conflict with Bulgaria which protested against being shown as a country covered with Turkish (squat) toilets. In reaction to it, the Czech presidency covered this image with cloth. However, several organizations fighting against censorship in art, among them Indeks 73, protested against it in an Internet petition.


"All sculptures are hyperbolic, highly sarcastic and for someone even totally unacceptable. Publicly, my position on them is strongly neutral. Privately, I am laughing as anybody else.," Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said in a chat on the Czech government's website << back