Bulgaria Resembles a 'Squat Toilet'

Well, that’s how Bulgaria got portrayed by the Czech artist, David Černý (and a couple of his friends). The artist recently unveiled his creation ‘Entropa’ which depicts the boundaries of EU countries on a tubular grid and shows each nation as a distinct piece of sculpture.

As a fallout of its ignominious depiction, Bulgaria lodged an official protest following which the Czech presidency had to get the image covered with a cloth. Bulgaria is not alone though! The artist who calls his work ‘tongue-in-cheek-stuff’ has not spared a single country out of the 27 nations that belong to the EU.

The total sculpture measuring 25 X 25 meters lampoons the stereotypical characteristics of each nation and attempts to inject humour towards the concept of European integration. Each piece of sculpture goes with a distinctive theme and portrays a different country.

With the artist not providing a clear indication of what each of his sculpture aims to interpret it is left to the viewer to draw his/her own conclusions regarding an individual country. The following partial list is just indicative and should by no means be taken as a definitive statement.

• Austria, known for its opposition to deployment of atomic energy, has been depicted as a green landmass filled with cooling towers from nuclear power plants. Periodically, they are shown to be emitting vapours.

• Belgium. They don’t make chocolates just in Switzerland! Belgium is shown as a half-filled box of partly consumed Praline chocolates

• Bulgaria is represented by the (now controversial) "Turkish" squat toilets illuminated with neon-like lights.

• Cyprus is shown as a half-cut jigsaw.

• Denmark is erected out of Lego bricks and is purported by some to be reminiscent of the ‘controversial cartoons’. The artist has however denied this idea of an interpretation totally.

• Estonia is depicted with a replica of the Communist symbols of hammer and sickle.

• Finland depicts a male lying down on a wooden floor wielding a rifle and ‘combating’ a hippo and an elephant .