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| Anti-Hellenic, Anti-Romanian, Anti-Bulgarian (etc) art piece |
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| Adamantios |
 Posted: Monday, 19 January 2009 10:19 pm Post subject: Anti-Hellenic, Anti-Romanian, Anti-Bulgarian (etc) art piece |
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An "art piece" commissioned by the Czech Republic and installed in the European Council building has offended many of the EU countries displayed as well as non-EU countries, like Russia (which is shown being urinated on by Lithuania). Hellas is shown being in flames, Cyprus is shown being divided in two, Romania is shown as a Dracula theme park, Bulgaria is shown as a Turkish-style toilet, and so on. Here follow some articles.
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Austria, a known opponent of atomic energy, is a green field dominated by nuclear power plant cooling towers; vapor is coming out of them at intervals
Belgium is presented as a half-full box of half-eaten Praline chocolates
Bulgaria is depicted by a series of connected "Turkish" squat toilets; neon-like lights connect and illuminate them
Cyprus is jigsawed (cut) in half
The Czech Republic's own piece is an LED display, which flashes controversial quotations by Czech President Václav Klaus
Denmark is built of Lego bricks, and some claim to see in the depiction a face reminiscent of the cartoon controversy, though any resemblance has been denied by the artist
Estonia is presented with a hammer and sickle-styled power tools, the country has considered a ban on Communist symbols
Finland is depicted as a wooden floor and an [apparently drunk] male with a rifle, imagining various animals
France is draped in a "GRÈVE!" ("STRIKE!") banner
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.
Greece is depicted as a forest that is entirely burned, possibly representing the 2007 Greek forest fires and the 2008 civil unrest in Greece.
Hungary features an Atomium made of its common agricultural products melons and Hungarian sausages, based on a floor of peppers
Ireland is depicted as a brown bog with bagpipes protruding from Northern Ireland; the bagpipes play music every five minutes
Italy is depicted as a football pitch with several players who appear to be masturbating with the footballs they each hold.
Latvia is shown as covered with mountains, in contrast to its actual flat landscape
Lithuania a series of dressed Manneken Pis-style figures urinating on its eastern neighbours; the streams of urine are presented by a yellow lighting glass fibers
Luxembourg is displayed as a gold nugget with "For Sale" tag
Malta is a tiny island with its prehistoric dwarf elephant as its only decoration; there's a magnifying glass in front of the elephant
The Netherlands has disappeared under the sea with only several minarets still visible; the piece is supposed to emit the singing of muezzins
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
Romania is a Dracula-style theme park, blinking and emitting ghostly sounds at intervals
Slovakia is depicted as a Hungarian sausage (or a human body tightened by Hungarian tricolour)
Slovenia is shown as a rock engraved with the words first tourists came here 1213
Spain is covered entirely in concrete, with a concrete mixer situated in the northeast
Sweden does not have an outline, but is represented as a large Ikea-style self-assembly furniture box, containing Gripen fighter planes (as supplied to the Czech Air Force)
The 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 |
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(Note: This news article links to a video clip that shows the "art piece": http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7829453.stm; likewise, some photographs of it can be seen here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7827747.stm)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7830498.stm
Czechs apologise for hoax EU art
The Czech EU presidency has apologised for an art installation it commissioned that lampoons national stereotypes.
Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra apologised directly to Bulgaria, which has formally complained over its depiction as a toilet in the art work.
He said the image, at the European Council building in Brussels, would be removed if Sofia insisted.
David Cerny, the Czech artist behind the work, admits misleading officials over his intentions with the project.
He said he had "wanted to find out if Europe is able to laugh at itself".
The Czech Republic thought it had commissioned work from 27 European artists for the Entropa display, which was installed at the weekend to mark the start of its six-month presidency.
But it turned out the work - an eight-tonne mosaic resembling a snap-out plastic modelling kit - was entirely completed by Mr Cerny and two associates.
'No censorship'
At the official unveiling of Entropa on Thursday, the artwork "came to life", emitting noises and flashing lights, to general applause - a sound not often heard in the EU Council building in Brussels, says the BBC's Oana Lungescu in Brussels.
Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra apologised to anyone who was offended by the work.
"I apologise to Bulgaria and its government if it feels offended, and I think we are certainly ready to engage in a dialogue," he said, quoted by the AFP news agency.
Sofia summoned the Czech ambassador on Wednesday to complain.
"If you stand by your request to remove it," he told a Bulgarian diplomat at the ceremony, "of course we will certainly do that".
But he said the rest of the installation would stay.
"We wanted to prove that 20 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, there is no censorship," said the former Czech dissident.
But he refused to share the platform with the artist, who insisted his piece was in the European tradition of satire, like Monty Python and France's Les Guignols.
He also denied that the Lego entry for Denmark was a representation of one of the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that appeared in 2005.
As well as portraying Bulgaria as a toilet, Entropa depicts Romania as a Dracula theme-park and France as a country on strike.
The Netherlands is shown as a 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 the EU's most Eurosceptic members - is absent from Europe altogether. |
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http://www.tasr.sk/30.axd?k=20090116TBB00232
Entropa: Slovakia Takes Account of Czech Apology
Bratislava, January 16 (TASR) - Foreign Affairs Ministry accepted the fact that the Czech Government Deputy for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra distances himself with the controversial work entitled Entropa, a mystification in the words of the artist David Cerny.
On behalf of the Czech Republic, Vodra apologised for any possible unintentional offence it might cause Slovakia while it is installed in the foyer of the European Council building in Brussels during the six-month presidency. The ministry now considers the issue settled, TASR was told by the ministry's spokesman Jan Skoda on Friday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Kubis had a phone call with Vondra before the controversial piece of art 'Entropa' was officially presented, and conveyed to him Slovakia's reservations about the way Slovakia is depicted in this art piece.
Slovakia is depicted as a salami in a wrapper tied with a lace in the colours of the Hungarian tricolour. Bulgaria also expressed its displeasure, as it is depicted as a Turkish toilet.
The art piece shows all 27 EU countries except Britain, which, according to the artist, suggests its detachment from continental Europe by its absence. Cerny sees Germany as a network of highways in the shape of almost a swastika, France's features its proclivity for labour disputes, the nuclear-averse Austrians have two cooling towers of a nuclear power plant on a green field, Latvia is depicted as a country with an incompetent army. Italy is a football field with players holding footballs in front of their private parts, Greece is in flames, the Netherlands under water with minarets sticking out. |
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| Knez_Nenad_Of_Serbia |
| Posted: Tuesday, 20 January 2009 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Romania is a Dracula-style theme park, blinking and emitting ghostly sounds at intervals |
I never understood the Western fear/hatred of Dracula. Personally, I think he was a military genius who kept the Turks at bay.
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| Adamantios |
| Posted: Wednesday, 21 January 2009 4:08 am Post subject: |
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| Knez_Nenad_Of_Serbia wrote: |
| I never understood the Western fear/hatred of Dracula. Personally, I think he was a military genius who kept the Turks at bay. |
Most Westerners only know "Dracula" and have never heard the name of Vlad Tepes (or even Vlad the Impaler) since they are familiar only with the novel by Bram Stoker. The few who do regard him as a monster and view his actions as atrocities; I've seen American documentaries on torture that cited and investigated Vlad III's methods of impalement and they stated the most inaccurate and outrageous things: that he impaled his own people in order to frighten the Turks when, in reality, it was tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers that he had impaled as part of his psychological warfare. Although true that he would punish Romanians with impalement, he never used Romanians when scaring the Turks into submission. Nor were most of the impaled Romanians.
That said, we must not forget that Vlad Tepes ultimately died a heretic -- he converted to Catholicism in order to be released from prison -- and was, I believe, also responsible for the death of at least one Orthodox monk who condemned him for his actions. (Vlad Tepes would spend a lot of time surrounded by monks and building churches/monasteries because he believed his good works would outweigh his evil.) |
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| serb american |
| Posted: Tuesday, 3 November 2009 6:22 am Post subject: |
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I have seen the documentaries of vlad dracula and I do find them offensive and full of lies, they do not portray bram stokers story but they don't tell the truth either. they take into account only german and turkish sides of the story. he was a true hero that fought turks. I do not believe he truly converted to catholicism, I think he was just putting on a show for the hungarian king to be freed and to get support for another campaign. he never tried to convert orthodox people to catholicism, there is absolutely no record of it. I have heard of him having enemies within the orthodox church but I heard they were tied to romanian nobles that were against him from the start and traitors within the church that made deals with the turks. I have no proof of that just something I heard.
I also heard he fought in bosnia on one of his campaigns helping serbs against the turks.
he defended europe and christianity, vlad tepes and many others like him who fought the turks are the reason why we are born christian and not muslim. he should be a hero to all of europe not just romania, it is a shame people with no respect like bram stoker have demonized his memory. I see it as just another attempt of the west trying to belittle the accomplishments of eastern europe.
I understand romania is not a rich country (financially), but I think they should have a little more integrity in their heroes and their past and say tourism money is not worth making a joke of their history. |
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