Culture Minister: Bulgaria Must Learn from Czech Artist Cerny

Bulgaria's Culture Minister Rashidov believes Bulgaria should not have slammed Czech artist David Cerny. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria must learn a lesson from the whole case with Czech artist David Cerny and his exhibit Entropa.

This is the opinion of Bulgarian Culture Minister, sculptor Vezhdi Rashidov, who also thinks no one has the right to hinder the creative impulses of an artist.

“The Czech artist actually did his job very well, and managed to provoke the mind of many people. This is actually the essence of the so called “action art”,” Rashidov said commenting on Cerny’s decision to give up his planned visit to Bulgaria after the Mayor of the city of Plovdiv prevented his works from being exhibited in a municipality-owned gallery.

Cerny became a controversial figure in Bulgaria with his exhibit Entropa opened at the European Commission building in Brussels in January 2009, where Bulgaria was portrayed as a squat toilet.

Rashidov called upon everyone to start contemplating why foreign artists see Bulgaria in such a way before making any rash decisions.

“We should not really have made noise over the way he portrayed us in Brussels. We should have started to think why he did that,” the Culture Minister said during the Golden Chest movie festival in the city of Plovdiv which wrapped up Saturday. Rashidov is the author of the statuette which is handed as award at the festival.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!