Whatever one's reaction, the new installation celebrating the Czech Republic's six-month presidency of the European Union has achieved the ultimate accomplishment of any piece of art: Create a sensation.
On Thursday, the Czech deputy premier, Alexandr Vondra, came to Brussels to see for himself what the brouhaha at the EU's headquarters was all about.
``Entropa'' _ by David Cerny, a Czech artist who is no stranger to controversy _ dominates the lobby of the EU's Justus Lipsius Building. Measuring 25 x 25 meters (yards) it shows the outlines of EU nations on a tubular grid showing each nation, warts and all.
The artist says it is just tongue-in-cheek stuff.
His installation shows France as being on strike, Italy a land where soccer is an ``auto-erotic system of sensational spectacle'' and Germany laced by autobahns roughly in the shape of a Swastika cross.
The Netherlands is covered by floodwaters pierced only by minarets of mosques. Polish clergy raise _ Iwo Jima-style _ the rainbow flag of the gay community in their arch-Catholic country. And Sweden is _ what else? _ a box of prefab furniture.
Britain is completely absent, reflecting its traditional aloofness from European integration.
There has been one formal protest: from Bulgaria, which objects to being depicted as a squat toilet.
The Czech government says Cerny lied to them because he was paid euro50,000 ($65,870) to round up the works of European artists representing all 27 EU nations and create a joint project, according to Vondra.
``David Cerny bears the full responsibility for not fulfilling his assignment,'' Vondra said earlier this week. ``We are now considering which steps to take.''
Cerny apologized at a press conference Thursday, promising to repay his fee to the government. He also he would remove any parts of the artwork that offended any nation's pride.
``We are really sorry that we insulted individual nations,'' he told reporters, singling out Bulgaria. ``That's a pity that some countries don't like it.''
But the artwork has also drawn large crowds of spectators to the Justus Lipsius building, where art usually depicts a more saccharine Europe _ French castles, Greek sunsets or Dutch canals.
Paul Gerard, a Frenchmen who works nearby, said he wasn't shocked.
``It's true. The French are always striking,'' he laughed.
Olga Capa, a Portuguese working at the European Commission, found the show ``a bit shocking ... but not offensive, really.''
Could the Czech Republic _ a country where freedom of thought was suppressed for decades under Communism _ resort to taking down an art exhibit because it seen as too provocative?
``If that happens,'' Cerny told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday from Prague, ``it would mean going back to communism. It would mean denial of freedom of speech.''
He said the Czech government asked him to produce a concept piece of ``27 artists (but) I quickly figured that would be technically and financially difficult to do.'' The work in Brussels was created by ``about 10 people'' in the Czech Republic and abroad, he said.
Cerny noted that today's Czech leaders have a record of opposition to totalitarian rule.
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