David Cerny and Czech vs. The rest of Europe

I don't really know quite how to respond to this controversial piece of art that the Czech's commissioned for their stint as head of the EU. David Cerny is definitely not making friends in the greater Europe region with a work like that. First let me state that I think the EU is a good idea and I wish that a nation like Czech, who has benefited from joining, would grow up and stop whinning about being a part of it. I also find it amusing that their current President is none other that Vaclav Klaus who is a notorious Euro-skeptic. The problem with the younger batch of EU countries like Czech and the other Eastern block nations are that they want all the goodies and don't want to do anything to get them. This is a rather odd state of being but nonetheless one they seem to have adopted quite well. The other problem with these states are that they are willing to do whatever the US asks of them, which has included ignoring the EU to negotiate their own treaties.

So this brings us back to David Cerny. Really I think the piece is hilarious. Its absolutely over the top, and why not? Every piece is a stereotyped image of a country. Like Sweden is a wing from our military airplane that we can't sell wrapped in an Ikea box (that is amazing). England isn't even on the piece, its intentionally left out as being absent. Belgium is shown as a box of chocolates. Germany is a set of highways. France is a sign that says STRIKE! While it should never be acceptable to encourage stereotypes, at the same time we should ask ourselves whether these things say anything about our culture. Of course it is too bad that Cerny managed to lie his way into doing the art (he was supposed to do it as a group project but it turns out he did the entire thing by himself), but that doesn't change the fact that he made a funny piece of art. I like it.

by the way here is a joke about belgium...

What is Belgium famous for? Chocolates and child abuse, but they only invented the chocolate to get to the children. (Note: this is from a movie).