EU Presidency Ready to Remove Disputed Art
The Czech presidency of the European Union said
Thursday it was ready to remove a controversial art installation in
Brussels depicting Bulgaria as a psychedelic Turkish toilet,
following protests in Sofia.
The installation by Czech artist David Cerny is located in the main entrance hall of the council building in Brussels, where EU summits take place.
It is meant to poke fun at national cliches and stereotypes of the EU's 27 member states with an 8-ton jigsaw resembling a plastic scale model of an EU map.
Denmark, for instance, is depicted as a Lego set which reveals the contours of the Prophet Mohammed - a reference to the Danish newspaper cartoons of Mohammed that sparked outrage in the Muslim world in 2006.
Italy is a football pitch where players masturbate with a ball, Belgium is a box of chocolates, France is "on strike" and Britain is an empty space.
But perhaps the most controversial installation concerns Germany, which has nine stretches of autobahns arranged in such a way as to resemble a Nazi-era swastika.
While Berlin has so far not officially reacted to the installation, Bulgaria has expressed the greatest outrage. The government in Sofia summoned the Czech ambassador for an explanation on Wednesday.
Bulgarian diplomats in Brussels said Thursday they had written a second letter to the Czech presidency and to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana asking for the Bulgarian part of the installation to be removed.
"We apologize to Bulgaria if it feels offended," said Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra at the art work's inauguration.
Asked whether he was willing to have the Bulgarian installation removed, Vondra said: "If they uphold such a request, we will certainly do it."
The artist also apologized to Bulgaria for the "misunderstanding" and said he would bow to diplomatic pressure if necessary.
"It was clear from the beginning that there would be some controversy," the artist said.
"We expected it to be taken as a joke, as a nice installation and nothing else," Cerny said as he compared his work's satirical spirit to that of Monty Python's Flying Circus or Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat.
While insisting that the work of art was never meant "as the Czech presidency's vision of the EU or its member states," Vondra defended its underlying message.
"The project depicts mainly stereotypes and cliches as barriers to integration and cooperation in Europe. By realizing that these barriers are there, we can start removing them," Vondra said.
The Czech government's official motto for its six-month EU presidency is "Europe Without Barriers".
The deputy premier said the work was also meant "to prove that 20 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, there is no place for censorship in Europe."
To reinforce the point, a giant map of Europe split in half by the Iron Curtain is on display on the hall's opposite side.
It has become a tradition for different EU presidencies to decorate the entrance hall of the council building. But the Czech initiative is by far the most provocative to date.
Thursday's unveiling of the installation was attended by scores of EU bureaucrats and was accompanied by applause and a few boos.