MICHELE NORRIS, host:
A work of sculpture in Brussels recently provoked an international incident of sorts. The sculpture was commissioned by the Czech Republic to honor its role as the current head of the European Union. But the artist, David Cerny, took a cheeky approach with Entropa, as the sculpture is called. He depicted the countries of Europe in unflattering stereotypes. And our commentator, Andrei Codrescu, thinks the artist took the right approach.
ANDREI CODRESCU: There was Luxembourg depicted as a tiny lump of gold marked by a for-sale sign; Bulgaria as a series of holes-in-the-floor toilets; Romania as a Dracula theme park; and England missing entirely. The artwork was intended to signify the wonder of uniting the marvelous, individual riches of each member state. Bulgaria immediately withdrew its ambassador from Prague, and the Czechs are probably wondering how long it will take Germany, represented in the mosaic by intersecting highways that look a bit like a swastika, to reach Prague.
The 1983 sculpture "Shoot-Out" by Red Grooms, commissioned by the Denver Museum of Art, was quickly hidden by that institution in a back alley because its cartoon version of Western history, showing a cowboy and an American Indian shooting at each other, outraged institutional sensibilities. In the next few decades, artists continued to enrage the state with various media: Karen Finley with words in chocolate, Robert Mapplethorpe with photos of naked men, Andres Serrano with a blasphemous construction. When Western countries, including the U.S., seemed to calm down somewhat, mostly by withdrawing funding from controversial artists, the rest of the world got into the act. The Ayatollah Khomeini condemned Salman Rushdie to death for being unflattering to the Prophet. Dutch Islamists killed a documentary filmmaker, and rioting crowds in Pakistan, protesting writing on the bottom of some U.S.-made sneakers, trampled to death some of their own. All those things seem to have occurred a long time ago, so it was about time that art struck back. Thank you, David Cerny, from the country of Soldier Svejk and Franz Kafka, for keeping European states, united or not, from blowing too much hot, symbolic air.
NORRIS: Our commentator, Andrei Codrescu. His latest book is "The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess." And the artist behind the sculpture in Brussels did issue an apology for misleading the Czech government. But he added that he wanted to find out whether Europe is capable of laughing at itself.