EU or eeww?

It’s difficult to stop laughing long enough to seriously examine Czech artist David Cerny’s latest stunt -- an installation commissioned by the Czech Republic to celebrate its assumption of the presidency of the European Union. What the Czechs got instead of the glorious depiction of European harmony they expected is a work that ferociously stereotypes the member countries: Poland is represented by Catholic monks posed as the Marines at Iwo Jima, but they are raising the rainbow flag of the gay rights movement. Luxembourg is a lump of gold with a “for sale� sign, Germany is a series of highways (resembling a swastika), and all of France is on strike. Romania is one big Dracula theme park.

The poor Czechs. Their turn at leading the EU already had provoked deep skepticism, and Cerny’s 9-ton diss -- hanging at the entrance to the European Council building in Brussels -- doesn’t help. But what did they expect? After all, this is the same artist who crafted a piece that invites viewers to climb a ladder between the legs of a giant nude, stick their heads into its buttocks and watch a video of two Czech politicians feeding each other unidentifiable glop while Queen’s “We Are the Champions� plays.

Why did he do it? Cerny says he wanted to see if Europe could laugh at itself. The Bulgarians are not amused. They’ve called the Czech ambassador to Sofia to explain this offense to their national dignity: Bulgaria is portrayed as a series of squat toilets.

We’d like to think we could laugh at a portrait of the United States a la Cerny. Though that might depend on how close it hewed to the truth.