Nice work if you can get it

Another excellent post by the dashing Mr Waterfield with yet another example of why Vaclav Klaus is a million times better at looking after the interests of his country than Gordon Brown could even imagine. This time, it's through art:

The Czech Republic, current holders of the EU presidency, has commissioned a large scale "provocation" taking the form of a giant jigsaw map representing the "clichés and stereotypes" of each of the EU's 27 member states, executed by different national artists...As a Czech just told me: "We decided we preferred a piece of work by independent artists rather a euro decoration designed by a committee.

That ridiculous '50 years' monstrosity, which didn't actually make sense in any language, springs to mind. A technicolour stream of vomit which also was either a year out of date (Astrid Lulling tells me that actually there were sittings before 1957) or about 45 years out of date as 10 countries joined in 2004 and 2 in 2007. But hey, this is the EU. We don't like to let facts get in the way of our master plan.


What struck me about the whole 'sculpture thing' apart from the rather predictable way the slightly-more-dull-than-death Eurocrats reacted was that the British artist seemed to do rather well out of the whole project:

Britain is not to be seen at all because the British artist Khalid Asadi has sought to highlight Britain's "uncertain" relations with the EU by cutting the country out altogether.

Which says to me, if you'll forgive me slipping into the Anglo Saxon vernacular, as 'fuck all'.

I wonder if he got paid? Makes Tracy Emin's 'My Bed' look like a hard slog to get the piece finished.

Back to Oxygen Thieves:

Po-faced EU officials have instantly expressed concern.

"This is very provocative for an official building and does not seem to have been properly discussed in the appropriate forum," said one official.

"This might all be very 'fun' for some people but shocking art is not going to help get things done," said another hissy official.

I think they're missing the point. Take another look at the installation.

Did you see? The potential? Those big, strong bars, heavy enough to ensure gravity keeps it steady?

Steady just in case one gets just a little too tired of being ignored by people who get paid millions of euros a year just to ignore you?