EU devoid of sense of humour?
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:34 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7827738.stm
A new art installation going on display at the European Council building in Brussels has angered EU members with its lampoons of national stereotypes.
Entropa portrays Bulgaria as a toilet, Romania as a Dracula theme-park and France as a country on strike.
The Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency, thought it had commissioned work from 27 European artists.
But it turned out to have been entirely completed by Czech artist David Cerny and two associates.
The eight-tonne mosaic is held together by snap-out plastic parts similar to those used in modelling kits.
The Netherlands is shown as series of minarets submerged by a flood - a possible reference to the nation's simmering religious tensions.
Germany is shown as a network of motorways vaguely resembling a swastika, while the UK - criticised by some for being one of EU's most eurosceptic members - is absent from Europe altogether.
A new art installation going on display at the European Council building in Brussels has angered EU members with its lampoons of national stereotypes.
Entropa portrays Bulgaria as a toilet, Romania as a Dracula theme-park and France as a country on strike.
The Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency, thought it had commissioned work from 27 European artists.
But it turned out to have been entirely completed by Czech artist David Cerny and two associates.
The eight-tonne mosaic is held together by snap-out plastic parts similar to those used in modelling kits.
The Netherlands is shown as series of minarets submerged by a flood - a possible reference to the nation's simmering religious tensions.
Germany is shown as a network of motorways vaguely resembling a swastika, while the UK - criticised by some for being one of EU's most eurosceptic members - is absent from Europe altogether.