Black Humour - Czech Style

There is a famous Czech artist named David Cerny. Cerny (pronounced like "chair-knee") means "black" in Czech, which is appropriate as his artwork definitely falls in the "black humour" category. If you are avid blog-readers, you have already seen some of his work...those freaky babies on the TV tower in Zizkov, near our old flat.

Anyway, as you are aware, the EU presidency currently resides with the Czech Republic. The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, who is well-known to be anti-EU, commissioned Mr. Cerny to create a work of art depicting the European Union. Cerny was paid by the EU and a large corporation and said that he would be using artists from each of the countries to create his piece, which would show each country and what best-typifies them.

It comes as little surprise to those who know Cerny's work that the unveiling in Brussels did not go over well. In fact, Cerny and some friends (not the league of international artists he claimed were assisting him) created something that mocked each of the EU nations. Bulgaria, for example, was depicted as a Turkish squat toilet. (The Bulgarians complained enough that this portion of the exhibit was covered while the work was on display in Brussels.) By the way, Mr. Cerny returned the money, insisting that he never had any plans to keep it and only took the payment to make the unveiling more legitimate and real. He also defends his piece, saying that stereotypes must be confronted in order for barriers to be broken down and that he believes the EU must be strong enough to laugh at itself. You can read his description of the piece on his website.

Anyway, since it wasn't a big hit in Brussels, Entropa was returned to the Czech Republic and is currently on display at the new DOX gallery. We met up with Karen and kids there today. Very cool space and very interesting to see the piece of art that caused so much commotion.

Here are some pics of Entropa: the entire piece plus closer views of Denmark and Poland.

Here's Karen leading the troupe: Roman, Ella, Sasha, and Mattias.

And the kids have fun on the cafe terrace: