POLISH PRIESTS erecting a gay pride flag, Lithuanian statues urinating on Russia and a non-existent Britain are three of the exhibits in a controversial art installation opened yesterday in Brussels, which reflects national stereotypes or prejudices about EU states.
Just days after Czech president Vaclav Klaus announced he wanted his country’s presidency to begin a debate on the union, Czech diplomats unveiled the huge sculpture in the normally dull and grey council of ministers building in the EU quarter.
The installation, entitled Entropa, is composed of 27 works by artists from each member state, many of whom poke fun at their governments and supposed national characteristics.
The Netherlands is shown as entirely under water except for several minarets poking through the waves, a reference to the country's vulnerability to climate change and its lurch to the right in the immigration debate. Bulgaria is depicted as a Turkish lavatory, France by the word grève(strike), while Britain is simply non-existent, playing on the country's notoriously detached relationship with the EU since it joined in 1973.
Ireland is depicted by a hairy set of uilleann pipes by artist John O’Connell in a work that is described by the programme as reflecting the “need for inner ethnic exoticism and the marketing of a distant, idealised Ireland”. It might also, in the view of one observer from another EU state, be a reference to the Irish as a nation of “windbags”.
Czech artist David Cerny, who dreamed up the exhibit, uses a screen to display a stream of Klaus quotes to depict his state. “Let the head of state have his say . . . He is OUR president, we elected him, so let’s show him off to the world with joy in our hearts. He’s not just a skier, he’s a great guy,” he says.
Clearly, the Czechs have a sense of humour.