David Černý apologized to the government for the mystification with his work

Prague - Sculptor David Černý apologized to Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek and several other members of the government for the fact that the Entropa project for the headquarters of the EU Council is not what was promised. The announced work of 27 European artists is a creation of his and a few collaborators. "Grotesque exaggeration and mystification are characteristic of Czech culture, and creating false identities is one of the strategies of contemporary art," the authors stated in a press release sent to ČTK.
    "We apologize to Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Vondra, Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, and their offices for not informing them of the true state of affairs and thus misleading them," they said. They reportedly did not want politicians to bear responsibility for such politically incorrect satire. "We knew that the truth would come out. Before that, we wanted to see if Europe could laugh at itself," they add.
    The forms of the individual parts of Entropa employ artistic methods characterized by provocation. "The work thus parodies socially engaged art, which balances on the edge between seemingly controversial attacks on national character and harmless decoration of official spaces," they noted. They believe that the environment of Brussels is capable of ironic self-reflection and also believe in "the sense of humor of European nations and their representatives".
    Not everyone, however, is likely to demonstrate it, as, for example, the Bulgarian Permanent Representation to the European Union has already sharply criticized the work related to Bulgaria. The map of the country features a Turkish toilet, which the authors claim likely characterizes the country.
    The long-prepared and secret project seeks to present unwanted stereotypes that prevail about each EU member state. The work is expected to provoke mixed reactions in Brussels.
    The individual states in the European Union puzzle are represented by non-existent artists. They have their names, artificially created identities, and some even have their own websites. Each of them is also the author of a text explaining their motivation for the joint project. All of this was created by David Černý, Krištof Kintera, and Tomáš Pospiszyl, with the help of a team of many collaborators from the Czech Republic and abroad, the authors stated today.
    They claim that they originally intended to reach out to 27 European artists, but due to time, production, and financial reasons, they were unable to do so. Therefore, without the knowledge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they decided to create fictional artists who would represent various European national and artistic stereotypes.