Black Swine Attacks

David Černý (a.k.a. The Black Swine), that famously scandalous artist — forever scorned by decent citizenry — has shown once again that he’s got something ”up his sleeve.” He has succeeded in smuggling his mostly buried statue of a pink tank into Bohdaneč Spa, which has even enraged our stoic, stone-faced Premier. The monument celebrates the departure of the red cavalry from our pictures-que country. But once again we find that the truth lies elsewhere, and the local government elite have rightly cited the self-centered nature of the entire project and the foreign policy dangers involved, dangers that would eventually lead to economic discord. The project has proved unsuitable due to the unwillingness of the country’s Rus-sian partners to pay at least 10 percent of the debt from the Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) period. The know-how, which equals the amount to be paid over the next several decades, will come in handy to future generations, particularly in the field of space research, which is still a weak point for the Czech Republic.
Hasty decisions by local officials often heavily undermine laboriously developed sovereignty and our respect status among the international community.
As to the artistic value of the work, even a superficial glance reveals that it’s nothing more than a derivative work. This is not a real sculpture made by a real artist, but merely a real tank that has been painted pink.
And we say, along with the Russian Ambassador, that this kind of art is best, ”kicked in the pink ass.”

Ivan Mečl

01.02.2001