On 15 January 2009 an exhibition opened on the premises of the European Council in Brussels to mark the beginning of the Czech Republic's six-month presidency of the European Union. The authors were, until the day of the launch, believed to be twenty-seven artists from each of the EU's member-states, but media attention and political turmoil in Bulgaria forced the true - and single - author to declare his hoax on 13 January. It turned out to be the well known Czech conceptual artist, David Cerny.Dessy Gavrilova is founder-director of The Red House - Center for Culture and Debate in Sofia, Bulgaria
The citizens of Bulgaria have long forgotten that art could be a political force. It used to be under communism, but lost its importance since the change of 1989 and after. Now, at the beginning of 2009, art again matters in this country.
The installation-work Entropa aimed to provoke via an artistic depiction of cliches about the various European countries. David Cerny, while taking responsibility for the Czech contribution to the imagined collective, had to invent the identities of twenty-six "European artists" from the other states - and did well enough to mislead media and politicians, at least in my country, Bulgaria.
A mirror for Europe
Entropa represents a sculpture - a puzzle composed of twenty-seven 3-D maps of the European Union's members, each of them invoking and playing with a stereotype of the respective nation.Also in openDemocracy on Bulgaria and Europe:
Ilija Trojanow, "Bulgaria's red mafia on Europe's trail" (19 January 2006)
Ilija Trojanow,
"Bulgaria: the mafia's dance to Europe" (16 August 2006)
Ivan Krastev, "
Europe's other legitimacy crisis" (23 July 2008)
Irina Novakova, "
Georgi Markov: the truth that killed" (10 September 2008)
Poland, for example, is represented by Catholic priests raising aloft a gay-rights flag; the Netherlands by a flooded landscape, with only mosque towers poking above the waters; Romania as a Dracula theme-park; France as a banner announcing a strike; while detached Britain is....a blank space.
Bulgaria, meanwhile, was depicted as a "Turkish toilet" - an image that major Bulgarian institutions and media alike found deeply insulting. At this point the real action started.
The Bulgarian ministry of foreign affairs asked the Czech ambassador to explain the artistic insult; he went on to ask that the Bulgarian part of the sculpture be removed from the composition before the opening. The affair escalated: the Bulgarian representative to the EU issued an official protest-note; Bulgarian deputies in the European parliament from the nationalist Ataka party warned that they would remove the shameful work with their bare hands; and leading Bulgarian media outlets screamed on their front-pages that the author was "a Czech crook" and "fraudster", his work "scandalous" and "insulting".
This small-minded and disproportionate reaction reveals much about the mindset of Bulgaria's institutions and the complexes of its media: their latent nationalism, lack of a sense of humour - and profound ignorance about contemporary art. At the same time, the vehement Bulgarian denunciation backfired, in that it had it had the instant effect of making David Cerny's project one of the most successful conceptual art works of recent years. Insofar as the main aim of this type of art is to provoke debate, to attract controversy, to make the viewer revisit the obvious - then it has succeeded on this occasion in securing a victory for art and imagination over politics and reductiveness.
The Bulgarian political, institutional and media over-reaction has been far in excess of any of the other countries portrayed. In this it reveals instincts that have something uncomfortably in common with the ones that led the response of some Muslims (in Europe and beyond) after the publication in Denmark in 2005 of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. The furore is not something that honours a country that is - or aspires to be - European in spirit. It is also telling of the profound political and cultural insecurity that accompanies Bulgaria's now two-year-old European Union membership.
In the approach to Bulgaria's (and Romania's) accession to the EU on 1 January 2007, many European voices argued that the southeast European neighbours' entry was premature on the grounds of their murky institutional performance in certain areas. Since then, the new member-states have been busy providing further proof that such fears were not groundless - to the extent that the union has suspended €350 million ($450m) of the pre-accession funds pledged to Bulgaria.
Bulgaria thus carries a double burden - labelled by Brussels the most corrupt EU member-state as well as being the poorest. In response to these rough actions and accusations, the temptation of Bulgarian officialdom has been to react less by improving the dubious practices than by fighting the "wrong and unjust perceptions" with public-relations tools.
Moreover, the current socialist-led coalition government in Sofia - discredited, unpopular, and facing in June 2009 the challenge of a national election - is constantly looking for scandals (especially "anti-national" ones) it too could exploit in the interests of an appeal to the patriotic majority of voters.
It is into this context that the Entropa affair fell - making it unsurprising that it was seized on as just the latest episode in the EU's grand anti-Bulgarian conspiracy. The entire Bulgarian government machine, against the background of a media chorus, sought to mobilise the always-latent sentiments of offended patriotism and radical provincialism to give content and shape to their outrage.
A tale of two scandals
An interesting counterpoint to the peculiar Bulgarian dimension of this European story - without which it might have deserved and received less attention here - is another public scandal provoked in the country in 2007.
The trigger on that occasion was a scholarly work co-written by a young Bulgarian art historian and a German historian whose subject was an Ottoman-era massacre during the Bulgarian uprising of 1876 in the town of Batak as portrayed sixteen years later in a painting by the Polish artist, Antoni Piotrowski (1853-1924)
The Myth of Batak traced how Piotrowski's painting has shaped Bulgarian's perception of the 1876 events; and more broadly, how an artistic representation that twists and exaggerates historical facts can also powerfully influence a nation's memory.
The response of Bulgaria's leading institutions to Martina Baleva and Ulf Brunnbauer's book was telling. The president, the ministry of culture, the national history museum, the academy of sciences, and a majority of the media cursed the Bulgarian historian (resident in Germany) as a Turkish agent and a traitor to the nation. Bulgarian nationalist groups issued death-threats against her, and for more than a year exerted psychological pressure on her parents in Sofia.
The "Batak case" demonstrated how traumatised, full of complexes, and trapped in nationalistic and provincial attitudes most Bulgarian institutions are (a condition shared by a big proportion of Bulgarian citizens). Amid the spasm of hysteria, liberal voices were a distinct and weak minority. From the inside - and especially from that liberal corner - all of this made the then-brand-new European Union member-state feel deeply depressing.
In this, the Batak affair of 2007 looks as if it prefigures the Entropa one of 2009. But there are two differences. The first is in the dominant reaction of contributors on Bulgaria's internet forums. Over Batak, they almost unanimously joined the nationalistic-xenophobic tide; over Entropa they have predominantly laughed at the "Turkish toilet" metaphor (while only wondering why the toilet was depicted as so clean...) and congratulated the non-existent Bulgarian artist Elena Jelebova for her daring work.
The second difference is that since Elena Jelebova is a fiction, the consequences for her and her family are less alarming than they were for Martina Baleva. Bulgarian nationalists have no one to threaten, and the Bulgarian police do not have to waste resources in ensuring anyone's personal security. The latter point is especially important these days, when the police have been mobilising all their forces to subdue a three-day protest on 14-16 January against government mismanagement by students, eco-activists, doctors, teachers, agricultural workers, and pensioners in front of the parliament building in Sofia.
Gas-less, humourless, cold, chaotic... Bulgaria has definitely stepped into the new year and the Czech Republic's EU presidency with its wrong foot. Artists alone have some reason to cheer - because art has proved to be still capable of inspiring political action and debate.
Comments
Well done Chechs! Bulgarians of today have forgotten for instance that you as an people have revitalized Bulgarias History and culture, after Fifhundred years of turkish yoke, without even a toilet!!!An appology was necessary, not only to the people of Bulgaria, but especially to those in Bulgaria's government, so called "nationalists" and so called Bulgarias international representation of today, who do not want to be reminded, that not very far away pretty, even today much of them had to use worse toilettes in their parents and grand parents homes. Healthy Humor is not welcomed within today's Bulgaria, because Bulgaria is ruled by Aleko KOnstantinov's Bay Ganyo type of politicians! Nor is it welcomed in the Foreign Office, where the chief peasant does not want to be reminded of his or her origin! God beware that a blind should regain his sight, wasn't that something, Dessi, which you forgott to bring closer as a BUlgarian contribution to European civilization?
The Government of BUlgaria prefers to keep pretty much of their village without sewage purification plants, not to speake about the disastorous situation in many resorts and towns, were the sewagewater is not treated at all spread either in the sea,river, landscape or like in the case of Sofia prefers to organize trips on tax payers money to all over Bulgaria. For that an eminent appology to all Bulgarians must be issues by all todays politicians, parties, figures which claim to have been part of an BUlgarian government within the last 18 years. At least the Parliament, his speaker, must issue an appology statement to every Bulgarian for the incapacity to solve the waste and sewage problems of the Nation!
Thank you brother Chechs you have been again in the forefront for a better and toleranter Europe. Unfortunately under your former scholars only the Hero and the killers of Aleko Konstantinov, succeded, even to come back and receive something which never belonged to the foreign KIngs. KOnstantin Iretscheck the great scientist will turn around in his grave, but he predicted that Bulgaria will have a very, very difficult path back to the top of Europes Civilization.
Thank you for providing such an interesting background to this revealing provocation. In 1992 David Cerny, who was already known for his 'pink tank' of the previous year, struck in Brick Lane in East London. This time his intervention consisted of plastering the street with printed posters proclaiming a ‘Day of Killing’ to be held once a year, or whenever ‘the population level becomes dangerously high’. The poster announced that the event would be open to anyone able to hold a gun, and those with disabilities would be permitted to kill by proxy, so long as they had completed the appropriate form and submitted it one week in advance. The text of this notice was prepared with the help of an American then working as an aide to Havel in Prague Castle, and I believe the British writer Tom McCarthy was involved to some extent too.
The consternation caused by this mockery of bureaucratic procedure took a rather unexpected turn. A few days after Cerny and his fellow 'Neostunner' had returned to Prague, the Hackney Gazette reported the concern of an Inspector Richardson at Bethnal Green police station. He had evidently not recognised Cerny's ten point proclamation as a work of art. As I recall, he was worried that members of the Bangladeshi community around Brick Lane might reasonably be alarmed by the poster, mistaking it for the work of far right racist groups which had indeed been harrying people along Brick Lane. The fact that this was an artistic intervention was quickly explained to the inspector, and the matter allowed to drop.
However, I remember wondering at the time exactly how much Cerny and his accomplice really understood about the impact of their 'intervention'. I had walked up Brick Lane with them, and remembered them saying 'this seems to be an immigrant area', as if they had come up with their scheme without having any idea of the world in which it would soon be making sense (or nonsense). I guess that is how things sometimes go when 'transgression' is your main aesthetic manoeuvre...
It's sad when toilets are art. It's sad when other's problems provoke ridicule not compassion. I don't think Europe is a toilet even a clean Turkish one. It would have been funny if it's not so sad. Too close to reality to be considered art too.
Thank You Dessy,
I'm happy that after all independant authors do rise their opinion in the so-called democratic society of today's Bulgaria.
The second positive thing is finally we all saw that an art could be national issue in Bulgaria, I was thinking this is imaginurily and has nothing to do with the life and citizens in Bulgaria....
Cheers !
Dessi, you say the Bulgarian reaction is not right for a country which aspires to be European. What does European mean? Define your concepts, please. Is it European to refer to whole masses of people as a toilet? Implications: Dirt, poverty, inferiority. How is it different from the Nazis' referring to Poles, Czechs, Jews? You mean we should just stay humble and accept this impudent mockery of Bulgarian "material and spiritual destituteness" (As Cerny put it in his brochure)?
No problem with the freedom of art, but did you ever consider the political context in which this artwork was exhibited? This is not just a gallery, this is a building in which our representatives are supposed to meet with their EU partners - and sit... under the toilet-depiction of their country?
I would rather call this piece and the clichees and stereotypes it enforces (rather than fights) an example of "primitive instincts". Or if not, then of stupidity or lack of wisdom in communication with other cultures. It is also an act of intolerance towads the opinion of others - instead of letting 27 European artists express their humor, Cerny overwhelmed us with just his. I am not impressed and this is not Europe to me.
Greetings from Berlin
Good article.
I must say that I agree in general with it. In fact I would like to congratulate the author for it.
I'm not informed about the author's past and the driving force behind his work but I strongly disagree with the reactions toward it. A person can like or dislike something but he or she must use the words and the power of reason to argument her/himself. What is this barbaric act by the nationalistic party Ataka? How is it possible that members from a parliamentary party (both in the Bulgarian and EU parliaments) are issuing a threat to go and break the piece of art with their own hands?! Incredible! I think in all the EU states there is a debate about the depiction of their own country and I haven't heard such a venomous criticism (correct me if I'm wrong)? To me, for example, the German part is resembling a high-way swastika!!! We all know how sensitive is this issue. And the gay flag in Poland? And the lack of UK? Are there strong official reactions from their governments?
To finish I just like to strongly support the author of the article in her comparison of the outrage in the Muslim world with regard to the Mohammed cartoons and the reaction in Bulgaria.
It is a shame that Bulgaria belongs to the European Union. The country puts all the time "shit" (corruption, non-democracy, intolerance, etc.) on the image of the EU. Maybe it is better that it joins the Russian "Union", and elaves the EU as soon as possible. The critics who are arguing that the EU should make a halt with allowing new members are right.
I suppose I would support this article in a Bulgarian context, to counter the gvt's too easy hints at nationalistic feelings to cover the misery of its policies... But in the Brussels context I just think the Bulgarian gvt's reaction to its representation is just as stupid as the provocation it is answering to. Just sparking a scandal isn't enough to create lasting art, and I'm quite sure no one will remember such plodding provocation in a few years' time. Cerny can really thank the Czech gvt to have been allowed such a symbolic exhibition place, no one would have noticed this childish "work" otherwise...
First of all, if it wasn't for the ottomans, Europe would still use only perfume and no soap. Even still many of my colleagues don't wash there hands after visiting the toilet.
Second of all, my flat is at ground zero, and I live on the 3th floor. In case of a flood the only thing sticking out of the water would not be a minaret, but the church tower with the bell that wakes me up every Sunday at 9:30.
To compare Cerny and Aleko is ridiculous. While the latter was a real artist and achieved with his Bay Ganyo the same what Hasek did with his Svejk, the former is (at least to me) a pseudo artist who thinks he can do anything, like offending the whole EU - the different countries in a lesser or a greater degree, and give it a name art and be forgiven. Cerny likes to be the king's joker, but he is only one big joke.
Dessy, I agree with you that we need the art in Bulgaria to ring the bell and to wake the sleeping nation, or rather to say to lead the nation to something better. But Partsalev is long gone, and Slabakov just had enough and is now growing corn. And I just don't see who else can take their place. Although my hope lives on.
The place for this kind of "art" was not right, the time wasn't right either. The simple fact even that Cerny lied about who the involved artists were makes it even less valuable.
And people, please don't take Ataka party seriously. They are just a bunch of nationalists. What else one could expect from them.
The Hague
The Netherlands
As one living in Britain (thankfully, no longer in England - I've moved to Cornwall), I can only say that if the artist depicted it in the way described - " detached Britain is....a blank space." - then he's a mere beginner, and lets his targets off very lightly.
Clear skies!
RE: "The Good Soldier Svejk"
Make sure you get the new English translation of The Good Soldier Svejk available at http://zenny.com.
More information about the Svejk phenomenon at http://SvejkCentral.
Also, Svejk is on FaceBook now: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Good-Soldier-Svejk/133349009873?ref=nf
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