Czech officials have apologized to Bulgaria for any offence caused by the
artwork the Czech Republic selected to represent the country’s EU
presidency. At the official unveiling of the work in Brussels on Thursday,
Czech Deputy PM Alexandr Vondra said that he was ready to ‘engage in a
dialogue’ with Sofia, and have the image, which portrays Bulgaria as a
Turkish style toilet, removed if necessary. The sculptor behind the work,
David Černý, also apologized and said that he would hand back the money
he had been paid for the installation. Mr Černý’s work, ‘Entropa’,
uses national stereotypes to depict each of the EU’s 27 member states.
The controversial work provoked further outrage when it was revealed that
Mr Černý designed all of the component parts of sculpture himself,
instead of cooperating with artists from each of the EU’s countries as
was originally agreed.