Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Czech Republic is rotating into holding the presidency of the European Union. To celebrate the occasion, they commissioned a piece of art. It wasn't what they expected:

A new art installation going on display at the European Council building in Brussels has angered EU members with its lampoons of national stereotypes.

Entropa portrays Bulgaria as a toilet, Romania as a Dracula theme-park and France as a country on strike.

The commissioners thought they were getting a work that would utilize artists from all 27 EU nations. Instead, the project was done by Czech artist David Cerny and two assistants. According to the BBC's man in Prague, Cerny is:

the enfant terrible of the Czech art world.

Oops. To be fair, apparently "enfant terrible" is art world speak for fraud:

Mr Cerny, who presented Entropa to his government with a brochure describing each of the artwork's 27 supposed contributors from each member state, has apologised for misleading ministers, but not for the installation itself.

'We knew the truth would come out,' said Mr Cerny. 'But before that we wanted to find out if Europe is able to laugh at itself.'

Ah, so it's all a joke, in the end. Sounds like Ann Coulter when some whopper blows up in her face.

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