In 2009 the Czech Republic gained the presidency of the European chance to Union Council and as a mark of that achievement they creating their own slogan and logo. Their logo is seen all over the building. But another unique part of their presidency was a piece of artwork they commissioned to put on the inside of the Council building. The artist is David Černý a famous Czech artist. The art is extremely controversial, since it depicts the 27 member states of the EU, but not necessarily in a good light. For instance:
- UK (empty space): is not on the board but instead there is a large gap in the top left hand quarter, GB is criticized by some for being one of EU's most eurosceptic
2. Netherlands: has disappeared under the sea with only several minarets still visible, suppose to represent the drowning religious identity of the Netherlands
3. Finland: depicted as a wooden floor and a male with a rifle lying down, imagining an elephant and a hippo
4. France: draped in a "GRÈVE!" ("STRIKE!") banner
5. Sweden: does not have an outline, but is represented as a large Ikea-style self-assembly furniture box, containing Gripen fighter planes (as supplied to the Czech Air Force)
6. Germany: the Auto Bohn (hotly contested to be in the shape of a swastika)
- Belgium: an almost empty box of chocolates
8. Czech Republic: a LED display, which flashes controversial quotations by Czech President Václav Klaus
9. Poland: priests erecting the rainbow flag of the Gay rights movement, in the style of the U.S. Marines raising the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima.
10. Luxembourg: is displayed as a gold nugget with "For Sale" tag
11. Slovenia: shown as a rock engraved with the words first tourists came here 1213
12. Bulgaria: the one with a black sheet over it since it was demanded by the Bulgarian representative to be covered up: but it was a series of connected "Turkish" squat toilets; neon-like lights connect and illuminate them was a giant “eastern restroom” (a hold in the ground)
13. Latvia: shown as covered with mountains, in contrast to its actual flat landscape, to show that no one knows anything about Latvia
14. Italy: depicted as a soccer felid with several players who appear to be masturbating with the balls they each hold.
15. Romania: Dracula-style theme park, which is set up to blink and emit ghostly sounds at intervals.
16. Slovakia: depicted as a Hungarian sausage (or a human body wrapped in Hungarian tricolor)
17. Estonia: presented with a hammer and sickle-styled power tools, the country has considered a ban on Communist symbols
18. Portugal: wooden cutting board with three pieces of meat in the shape of its former colonies of Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique
19. Lithuania: series of dressed Manneken Pis-style figures urinating; the streams of urine are presented by a yellow lighting glass fibers
20. Denmark: built of Lego bricks, and some claim to see in the depiction a face reminiscent of the cartoon controversy
21. Ireland: depicted as a brown bog with bagpipes protruding from Northern Ireland; the bagpipes play music every five minutes
22. Hungary: features an Atomium made of its common agricultural products melons and Hungarian sausages, based on a floor of peppers
23. Greece: is depicted as a forest that is entirely burned, possibly representing the 2007 Greek forest fires and the 2008 civil unrest in Greece.
24. Spain: covered entirely in concrete, with a concrete mixer situated in the northeast to represent Spain always being “under construction”
25. Austria: a known opponent of atomic energy, is a green field dominated by nuclear power plant cooling towers; vapour comes out of them at intervals
26. Cyprus: jigsawed (cut) in half
27. Malta: tiny island with its prehistoric dwarf elephant as its only decoration; there's a magnifying glass in front of the elephant
This was my favorite part of the whole trip- I loved the art thought it was very witty and unique, although I am one of the very few in the whole EU!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/jan/14/politicsandthearts-eu
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