Pissing along happily. Entropa Foto: Daniela Cervova, flickr
You all have probably heard about David Cerny and his installation “Entropa” that was commissioned by the Czech Presidency. They wanted the Czech artist to create an artwork with a team of artists from all 27 EU member states, but in the end he put the whole thing together on his own, the first scandal. That he tried to represent each member state by one of its worst - or most common - negative stereotypes, led to the second scandal. Bulgaria was angry to be characterised by so called turkish toilets, so that they were covered with a black cloth - a new piece of art in itself, in a way. The Germans - after more than 60 years of Vergangenheitsbewältigung - only sighed about being depicted by motorways in the form of a swastika and praised the freedom of art as well as the self-critical use of clichés. The Spanish enjoyed Czech sense of humour. One might regard the artist’s approach as very clever because provocation via negative images is the most simple way to get press (the British yellow press does it very well, when making fun of the Germans as the Huns, for example). But his total disrespect of political correctness is also somehow liberating and uplifting. And reveals which countries have difficulties with laughing about themselves.
Still, I was wondering, whether the opposite, a piece of art making fun of positive clichés would work. And how it would look like. Where put the bottle of beer (Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany), where the wodka (Finnland, Sweden, Poland)? Where to put the cheese (Netherlands, Spain, Austria), where to put football (Italy or Great Britain), where to put democratic progress (France with the great révolution, Poland with the first ever democratic constitution in Europe, Great Britain with the Bill of Rights?). And where to put the best sense of humour? Playing and making fun of a nation’s imaginary good images might have created even more upheaval.
(22 votes, average: 3.68 out of 5)
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cool post! think it’s preposterous the Bulgarians take such great issue with a work of art. Get over it, I’d say. They may have legitimate reasons to feel offended, but that’s art; it may sometimes offend. Deal with it already.
Ooh, plus; the whole swastika-thing is ridiculously far fetched, I think. Cerny’s comment that you can also see a swastika in four connected tiles, is spot on I think. Let’s all stop taking ourselves so seriously, and lighten up!
I suppose the Bulgarians got what they wanted… they are now a black cloth on the European skyline instead of a Turkish toilet
Yes, we need more intelligent European art and - humour! I will try to find out if there have been other artists trying to tackle EU issues. If you come across any, I’d be intrigued to know.
Hey Nikola! Great post. This is exactly the kind of post we’re looking for - it’s relevant, personal and distinctly european in its subject matter. You’ve done a great job Nikola. Keep it up!
Thanks, Ruth! It is great fun so far to read all these comments, to see what everyone is thinking about. We’ll keep it up!
Poland is not vodka, Poland is žubrovka :))
But indeed it would be an interesting idea to see what we - Th!nkers - would come up with if we’d need to make such an art work ourselves? How would it look like?
thanks for taking my picture. I think we should be able to make fun of ourselves, so I find Entropa quite refreshing and a bit of cheeky. A pitty David Cerny didnt make more fun of Czechs…being one as well I am a bit dissapointed :)…time to return to the Council and take another shot of Bulgaria.
Good article. Entropa incorporated a good idea - using stereotypes in identifying ‘Europe’. It definitely invites us to take the thought further and indeed also look at the positive stereotypes.
[...] ist eine Betonwüste. Als der tschechische Künstler David Cerny im Januar sein Kunstwerk „Entropa“ enthüllte, entwickelte sich schnell eine rege Diskussion quer durch fast alle Länder der EU. [...]