Entropa - Art, Controversy, and Politics
Art is not doing its job unless it gets an emotional response from you. I’ve heard that said once and if that is indeed the definition of art, then the sculpture to be officially revealed later this week in Brussels, done by a Czech artist in honor of the rotating Czech presidency, is a great success.
The problem is that the Czech government has been put in a prickly situation and has some explaining to do after the sculpture, called Entropa, was put up on Tuesday created angry responses from some of the countries it represents.
The work of art was commissioned in Prague and awarded to Czech artist David Černý, famous for his other – often controversial – works. He initially gained notoriety in the early 90s after painting the memorial of a Soviet tank pink. One of his other famous works is of the giant babies climbing up Prague’s television tower.
The piece Entropa weighs 8 tons and cost €373,000 to make. As a whole, it looks like a plastic form of pieces that you would find in a toy model kit. There are 27 pieces, each representing a different country in the EU, and supposedly each piece was to have been contributed from different EU artists. At first glance it’s a pretty straight-forward concept – constructing the EU from many pieces. It’s only upon closer examination that things start to get fishy. Lots of negative stereotypes are used to depict each country. For example, Germany is depicted by a series of autobahns cris-crossing the country but some how manages to outline a Nazi swastika (Černý says this was unintended); Luxembourg is depicted as a piece of gold with a “for sale” sign attached to it; Denmark as a collection of Lego blocks in a mosaic of a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.
See the photos provided by Der Spiegel for more examples.
And then there is Bulgaria – depicted in the sculpture as a Turkish squat toilet, maybe as a symbol of the many years of Bulgaria under the bondage of Turkish imperialism. Many Bulgarians are not laughing. As a matter of fact, they’re pissed – pardon the pun, and the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Czech Ambassador to convey to him how upset they are. They are also demanding that the sculpture, or at least the part representing Bulgaria, be taken down.
You know what? I can’t say I blame them. Černý says the point is for people to have a sense of humor about this. I suppose he wasn’t intending to be directly insulting and would instead respond with a “hey, lighten up. It’s supposed to be funny” kind of quip to all the controversy. But most people have boundaries of what’s offensive and what’s not, and some things are just not funny, especially when it comes to national identity and stereotypes.
What was Slovakia depicted as? It wasn’t obvious to me but according to an article in SME, it’s the country wrapped up to make it look like a Hungarian “uherák” sausage. With Slovakia’s sometimes turbulent past with Hungary I can see why many Slovaks would find this offensive.
Something else to add to the pot of controversy: the Czech government was told that the piece would be created in conjunction with other artists from across the EU. Now Černý has come clean and says that he didn’t have the time or budget to organize other artists’ contributions and so went ahead and created the whole thing himself with a couple of friends. The names of the artists listed in the official brochure (there’s a link to the brochure in the SME article) who supposedly made contributions were all made up by Černý. He admitted this to Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra only this past Monday. Oh, boy.
Ok, I understand that the Czech government probably wanted a sterile piece of art that depicted “unity” or something else vague; I bet they’d have even settled for something corny and contrived. Instead they got a possible diplomacy issue that may turn out to be a major headache or at least a major embarrassment. I don’t envy those in Czech government right now.
Because some find the sculpture offensive and insulting, I think it should be taken down. What do you think?
Photo: Czech News Agency CTK
2 Comments on “Entropa - Art, Controversy, and Politics”
No, I don't think it should be removed. Some of the themes were in poor taste but that's not a crime; however, it was wrong for the artist to mislead the Czech government and everyone else about who contributed. Taking it down would create more of a circus than already is.
January 15th, 2009 at 05:30 PM
I totally agree with David. being a poor taste is not a crime. Every art need not to be liked by everyone. Being this art against the Czech government, such artist should be warned before putting it in public.
February 16th, 2009 at 08:26 PM