It's also in the grand Czech tradition of mordant satire. Milena Vicenová, the Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the European Union, explained: "There are many barriers to integration and cooperation in Europe. Stereotypes are such barriers. When we point out the stereotypes we begin demolishing them. Making fun of prejudice destroys it most efficiently." So first you piss everyone off...The piece, which cost 50,000 Euros, looks like the parts for a model plane or boat and claims to be by twenty-seven artists, each charged with creating an image of her/his country which plays up or inverts a common stereotype. Most are facile, some obscure, others draw blood. In fact, as the Czech representative in Brussels apparently only just found out (!), the whole thing is the work of Cerny
and two collaborators. If its intention was to stir things up (possible since it's presumably a commission of Euro-sceptic Vaclav Klaus), it seems to succeeding handily. Denmark's some abstract Lego figures, Italy's a soccer match, France is on strike, Portugal's a butcher block with steaks in the shape of its former colonies, Germany's a vaguely swastika-shaped mesh of freeways, Belgium's a box of chocolates, Lithuania's five "Manneken Piss" urinating over the border to Russia, Sweden's an Ikea box, Bulgaria's a Turkish toilet (?), England's ... missing, and the Czech Republic is an LED sign spooling the wonderful insights of Vaclav Klaus. And then there's the above for the Netherlands. Wicked but witty...!
