Art and Politics

This piece, commissioned by the Czech government, Graham tells me, is probably meant to see what sort of reaction it elicits. However, given that people always expect me to react, even to teasing (and I seldom fail to do so), I will keep up with my reputation: The sculpture seems to tease stereotypes of nations, purportedly to see if Europe is able to laugh at itself. But this isn't what we're meant to do--we aren't supposed to have a detached sense of irony about our countries (and patriotism is not my most virtuous virtue ever). It seems to me that in this case, irony is used to undercut the differences between nations as something light and funny rather than something real and deep. The piece is titled, "Entropa," which could refer to the future disintegration of national difference. The subtitle is "Stereotypes are barriers to be demolished." This raises the question of whether all barriers ought to be demolished.