The artwork “Entropa” by conceptual artist David Černy has been exhibited on the premises of the European Council in Brussels since 15 January 2009 to mark the beginning of the Czech Republic's six-month presidency of the European Union. His installation-work aimed to provoke via an artistic depiction of the clichés about the various European countries. EU space is represented as a sculpture – puzzle composed of twenty-seven 3D maps of the European Union's members, each of them invoking and playing with a stereotype of the respective nation, answering in an artistic way to the Czech Republic's EU Presidency’s official motto “Europe without Barriers”.

The eight-tonne and 16-sq-m mosaic portrays, for example, Germany as a network of motorways somewhat resembling a swastika; Poland as a group of Catholic monks erecting the rainbow flag of the gay community; France as a nation on strike; Romania as a theme-park-styled Dracula's castle; Luxembourg as a small lump of gold for sale; Italy as a massive football pitch; The Netherlands as series of minarets submerged by a flood; while Britain is significantly represented as an empty space. Bulgaria, meanwhile, is depicted as a "Turkish toilet" – an image that major Bulgarian institutions and media found deeply insulting and Bulgarian authorities requested that the installation should be removed.

As an answer to this situation the artist announces at his homepage: “Grotesque hyperbole and mystification belongs among the trademarks of Czech culture and creating false identities is one of the strategies of contemporary art. The images of individual parts of ‘Entropa’ use artistic techniques often characterised by provocation. The piece thus also lampoons the socially activist art that balances on the verge between would-be controversial attacks on national character and undisturbing decoration of an official space. We believe that the environment of Brussels is capable of ironic self-reflection, we believe in the sense of humour of European nations and their representatives.« Without this ironic self-reflection and sense of humour, we will still be stuck with stereotypes because they were not created by the artist himself really: national and European identities consist of numerous unreflected
stereotypes of the same kind.

We protest against any ideologically motivated pressures to an artwork. With this initiative we would like to give support both to the artist David Černy, who wanted to find out if Europe is able to laugh at itself and Czech Republic's EU presidency, as the EU should not be the place for censorship and political pressures. We hope that the situation similar to the withdrawal of the Tanja Ostojić’s artwork during the Austrian EU presidency will not repeat in this case. The art as a part of a democratic society should not be affected by political judgements of taste, although (and especially if) such art is politically and socially engaged. By signing this letter of support we are standing at the position that freedom of speech and artistic expression is not a question of parliamentary politics and it is beyond consensual governmental agreements.


The Peace Institute – Institute for contemporary social and political studies, Ljubljana
Gallery Alkatraz, Ljubljana
Gallery Škuc, Ljubljana