Controversial sculpture Entropa will be permanently exhibited in Plzeň

Plzeň - In Plzeň, the controversial sculpture Entropa by artist David Černý will be unveiled on Monday, September 6, which caused a storm of reactions last year after its installation in Brussels. The giant sculpture has been modified and will be used as part of an interactive exhibit about the European Union at the Techmania museum in Plzeň, which popularizes science and technology. ČTK was informed today by Tomáš Moravec from the non-profit organization Regional Technical Museum, which has operated the Techmania science center since the year before last.
    "Together with the Europe Direct center in Plzeň, we will unveil it at 10:00 in our premises," he added. Entropa, for which Techmania will pay 10.2 million crowns, consists of 27 main components that originally represent all EU member states. Techmania aims to stimulate public debate on European issues through the sculpture. Its installation fully corresponds with Plzeň's goal of becoming the European Capital of Culture in 2015, Moravec stated.
    The object is currently being installed by the company VEDeX, which also prepared it in the building of the EU Council in Brussels and at the DOX Center for Contemporary Art in Prague. In Plzeň, it will be placed in the currently unrenovated spaces of Techmania. Visitors will also be able to interact with it from the current exhibition hall, with sightlines ensured by three windows measuring 120 centimeters in width and 200 centimeters in height, designed by the Plzeň Atelier Soukup, Moravec said.
    According to the director of Techmania, Vlastimil Volák, the 16-meter tall work is intended to draw visitors to the museum who otherwise would not come. This way, Techmania will familiarize them with its activities. The intent is also related to the museum having opened an information center about the EU last year.
    The museum will pay 10.2 million CZK for the sculpture over several years. "A partial part of the sum should be covered by entrance fees from people who otherwise would not come here. Another part will come from our normal economic activities, and another from private partners," Volák specified.
    The sculpture caused an international uproar after its installation in Brussels in January 2009. Černý represented each EU country with certain stereotypes that other Europeans supposedly had ingrained. For example, Italians were depicted as a team of soccer players masturbating with soccer balls, Slovakia was symbolized by a bundle of material resembling cheese wrapped in the Hungarian tricolor, and Bulgaria was represented by a Turkish latrine.