Hee Hee

"A new sculpture in Brussels, commissioned by the Czech Republic in honor of its stint as holder of the European Union presidency, has rankled some EU members." From Der Spiegel.Now I guess I can see that some countries might be a little upset with their representations in this piece. My inclination would be to say, "but it's just art... one person's interpretation (in this case, a small team worked on it)." However, art is powerful. And not only can it lend legitimacy and momentum to a point of view, by its mere existence, it says "this point of view exists; it is real." People often don't appreciate that. They'd prefer to pretend that some points of view don't exist. So, for example, the image of a group of Catholic priests rasing a gay pride flag over Poland is threatening and offensive to some. (I thought the "Is the Pope Polish" jokes were obsolete- is there some ongoing reason Poland is associated with the Catholic Church?)

I'll leave it for the aggrieved parties to work it out for themselves. In the meantime... Hee Hee!

Photogallery here. There are some others that are amusing.