Beer with Chocolate: January 2009

Entropa

Today was the official unveiling of Entropa. Entropa is a satirical sculpture created by controversial Czech artist David Černý and commissioned by the government of the Czech Republic. Having been alerted to Entropa by Jane earlier in the morning and after reading the NYT story about it I had to go. Justus Lipsius, the building where the exhibit is being hosted and also the home of the Council of the European Union, is only a short bike ride away 10k. With the sun shining and a clear sky (yes I said clear sky in Brussels) I set out to see what this hoax was all about.

The design is that of a brand new set of model or puzzle pieces each, "lampoons the socially activist art that balances on the verge between would-be controversial attacks on national character and undisturbing decoration of an official space".

Austria, a known opponent of atomic energy, is a green field dominated by nuclear power plant cooling towers

A view from under Entropa

United Kingdom, known for its Euroscepticism and relative isolation from the Continent, is "included" as missing piece (an empty space) at the top-left of the work

Sweden does not have an outline, but is represented as a large Ikea-style self-assembly furniture box, containing Gripen fighter planes

Spain is covered entirely in concrete, with a concrete mixer situated near the Basque country

Slovakia is depicted as a Hungarian sausage (or a human body tighten by Hungarian tricolour)

Slovenia is shown as a rock engraved with the words first tourists came here 1213

Motto for 2009 in French

Motto in English

Sardinia

Romania is a Dracula-style theme park

Poland has a piece with priests erecting the rainbow flag of the Gay rights movement, in the style of the U.S. soldiers raising the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima.

Portugal is shown as a wooden cutting board with three pieces of meat in the shape of its former colonies of Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique

Netherlands has disappeared under the sea with only a several minarets still visible; the piece is supposed to emit the singing of muezzins

A closer look at Entropa

Luxembourg is displayed as a gold nugget with "For Sale" tag^[7]

Malta is a tiny island with its prehistoric dwarf elephant as its only decoration

The lower left hand corner

Lithuania has the Brussels landmark of Manneken Pis urinating on its eastern neighbours

Latvia is shown as covered with mountains, in contrast to its actual flat landscape

Italy is depicted as a football pitch whereupon the North and the South of the country play against each other, with moving players holding their balls in the "strategic position"

Ireland is depicted as a brown bog with bagpipes protruding from Northern Ireland; the bagpipes play music every five minutes

Hungary features an Atomium made of its common agricultural products melons and Hungarian sausages, based on a floor of peppers

Greece is depicted as a forest that is entirely burned, possibly representing the 2007 Greek forest fires and the 2008 civil unrest in Greece.

Germany is a series of interlocking autobahns, described as "somewhat resembling a swastika", though that is not universally accepted. The cars move along the roads.