Silly Little Country

More on Entropa

This from Spiegel-Online.

Still, a new art project commissioned by Prague in honor of its six-month stint at the head of the 27-member bloc has caused the Czechs to blush with embarrassment. Called "Entropa," the piece is a €373,000 over-sized mosaic map of Europe that relies on stereotypes to depict each country. And a number of countries are furious about it.

Still, other depictions make it clear that flattery was not one of Cerny's goals. Romania is shown as a Dracula theme park; Spain is merely a slab of concrete, in reference to its recently burst real-estate bubble; Holland is shown as being flooded over with only a few minarets poking out above the waves; Luxembourg is a gold nugget with a huge "For Sale" sign sticking out of it; and France is covered with a large sign reading "strike," an allusion to that country's frequent labor battles.

What is unfortunate to my mind is that this may make it harder for David Cerny to get commissions in the future. I at least get some pleasure from his work, unlike my experience with Damien Hirst, as a simple example.

Labels: David Cerny, Entrops, modern art

posted by Alan Adamson @ 3:48 PM 0 comments

David Cerny has Reappeared in my Life

When last seen, he was entertaining me as I explored Prague.
He now reappears in this wonderful story. He clearly likes poking a stick in the eye of authorities of many sorts. That the art installation is called Entropa already says a lot about it.

As far as I can tell from the pictures here Entropa is an ugly but really funny piece of work. It basically is a collection of European stereotypes, some of them being rather poignant and astute. I love, for instance, how he depicts my home country The Netherlands as completely covered with water and showing only the tops of minarets. His idea for France is very apt too. “Grève” means “strike”. I am not so sure about his depiction of Germany with its many motorways (looks vaguely like a swastika, but this may be unintentional) but you gotta love Romania as a Dracula theme park and the fact that he simply left out Britain. How do you say “pwned” in the Czech language?

The faux brochure for the installation, complete with invented artists, is hilarious, though it will surely make most EU countries feel rather peeved.

Labels: Czech puckishness, David Cerny

posted by Alan Adamson @ 5:44 PM 0 comments