Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Czech officials and an artist apologized for “Entropa,” an avant-garde installation at the European Union headquarters that has been criticized for casting a disparaging light on many of the 27 individual member states.

“Entropa is just art, nothing more, nothing less,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra told reporters today in Brussels, standing in front of the eight-ton work hanging in the main hall of the EU Council. “This is not how the Czech government or presidency view the EU or any member state. I understand that some could feel offended, and I would like to apologize.”

The Czech Republic, which assumed the EU’s six-month rotating presidency on Jan. 1, has already been forced to grapple with weighty matters such as the shutoff of natural gas from Russia and the Gaza conflict. It had intended to make Entropa a fun centerpiece of its cultural program which runs alongside the formal political and economic events that occupy a country’s time as head of the bloc.

David Cerny, the artist who was commissioned to seek the input of 27 other individuals in preparing the 170-square-foot work but instead produced it himself with help from a small group of artists, called Entropa “an art piece” before apologizing.

‘Really Sorry’

“We are really sorry” about insulting “individual nations,” Cerny, 41, said at the news conference. He said he’s apologized “to my government” and will return the 10 million koruna ($482,700) money he received for the project to the Czech government.

Entropa assigns stereotypes or comic references to the 27 states in the bloc, including a strike banner for France, Ikea boxes in Sweden, soccer players in Italy and nuclear power plants in Austria. Romania is depicted as a Dracula theme park. The U.K. is the only country not shown, in an apparent jibe at its ties to Europe and often standoffish approach to EU policy.

The Czech nation is represented by an electronic billboard that displays remarks by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who opposes government attempts at limiting global warming and is against further European political and administrative unification and the single currency.

Bulgarian Toilet

Bulgaria, whose country was represented by an image of a Roman or “Turkish” toilet, has already asked that the installation be removed as soon as possible. Cerny said he apologizes to “Bulgaria and its government if it feels offended” and said he is ready to “engage in a dialogue” with the country if the government desires.

Vondra, who described Cerny as a “conceptual artist,” said the project is intended to stay until the end of June, although the government has indicated to the Bulgarians that it may be ready to remove the Roman toilet emblem. Vondra did not say whether it would order the installation’s removal.

“I don’t have any personal wish,” Vondra said. “My personal wish is not important. I accept the responsibility, but we are not leaving the scene.”

It is not the first time Cerny’s work has sparked criticism or debate. Cerny first broke into the Czech art scene in 1991 when he surreptitiously painted a Soviet tank monument pink, drawing a sharp rebuke from Russia.

Comic Art

In 1999 his comic rendition of a famous statue of St. Wenceslas in Prague’s main square depicted the former Czech king astride what appears to be a dead horse. Cerny has also battled Klaus and the head of the National Gallery in the past over his plans to present some of his work in the country.

In an interview yesterday with the Times in London, Cerny said he drew on the humor of Monty Python and Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” character in creating the map of Europe.

Cerny said in a statement on his Web site that the plan to have 27 individual artists collaborate on Entropa could not be realized due to “time, production and financial constraints.”

“The team therefore, without the knowledge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, decided to create fictitious artists who would represent various European national and artistic stereotypes,” Cerny wrote, adding that one goal of the project was to determine whether “Europe is able to laugh at itself.”

Cerny’s Entropa project, produced with help from Czech artists Kristof Kintera and Tomas Pospiszyl, includes a brochure introducing each non-existent national “artist,” including their past works, explanations of their contributions to Entropa and links to fake Web sites.

“What do we really know about Europe?” Cerny said. “We have information about some states, we only know various tourist clichés about others. We know basically nothing about several of them. We did not want to insult anybody, just point at the difficulty of communication without having the ability of being ironic.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Douglas Lytle in Prague at dlytle@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 15, 2009 09:07 EST