A new art installation, on display at the European Council building in Brussels, has enraged Bulgarian obervers with its depiction of Bulgaria as a toilet.

Entropa, the work of Czech artist David Cerny, is a satirical work that also portrays Romania as a Dracula theme-park and France as a country on strike. Controversially, it excluded Britain from the artwork completely, perhaps a metaphor for its isolation from the EU.

The Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency, thought it had commissioned work from 27 European artists. But it turned out to have been entirely completed by Cerny and two associates, including - allegedly - a Bulgarian artist named Elena Zhelebova who was initially reported to be the author of the work depicting Bulgaria as a squat toilet.

The work is held together by snap-out plastic parts similar to those used in modelling kits. All members of the EU are lampooned in the mosaic. For example, The Netherlands is shown as series of minarets submerged by a flood and Germany is shown as a network of motorways vaguely resembling a swastika.

Bulgaria, however, failed to see the funny side. It expressed its indignation and demanded that its representation is removed.  "It is preposterous, a disgrace," Betina Joteva, spokeswoman of the Bulgarian permanent representation to the EU, told the EUobserver. "It is a humiliation for the Bulgarian nation and an offence to our national dignity."

The Bulgarian Ministry of Culture was quoted by Dnevnik daily as stating on January 13 2009 that "it had nothing to do with it". It also issued a statement saying that the art project had not been vetted by the ministry and that it was unfamiliar with how Zhelebova (the supposed female artist behind the Bulgarian creation) had been selected to construct the exhibit.

Zhelebova was originally quoted as saying that her involvement with the project was a way for her to approach fake patriotism and to find relief from the hopelessness of Bulgarian material and spiritual life. "Last but not least, the project surely would irritate many people and this has been my main objective - to induce a scandal, especially at home. This is a punk gesture, deliberately primitive and vulgar, faecal immaturity."

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Martin Klepetko, Czech ambassador to Bulgaria, to "clarify" the Entropa project, Dnevnik daily reported on January 13 2009. Nikola Kaloudov, from the Europa II directorate, halso demanded that the Bulgarian exhibit be dismantled from the installation before its official opening on January 15.

The ministry described the artist's work as nothing but bad taste. Kaloudov has also said that Bulgaria did not accept the way in which the Czech presidency had failed to inform the official Bulgarian institutions about the planned exhibit.

On January 14 the controversy surrounding the exhibition yielded a further twist. Cherny admitted that the whole project was a hoax. It certainly had never been a collaborative effort by artists from all 27 EU members.  What's more, the installation has been completed with the help of a circle of friends of Cherny's. The Bulgarian "Turkish toilet" was not created by someone named Elena Zhelebova at all. The name - and her credentials that were initially presented to the public - were pure invention.

Cherny said in a statement that "Grotesque exaggeration and mystification is a hallmark of Czech culture, and creating false identities is one of the strategies of contemporary art." Only a day before the official opening, Alexandr Vondra, Czech deputy minister for European affairs, responded in another statement saying that he was "unpleasantly surprised" to learn that Cerny was the artist behind it and not 27 artists from the member states, as had been the original idea.

Cherny said that, initially, he had intended to include one colleague from all the countries concerned. But the plan fell through for various reasons and so he decided to invent the names. "We apologise ... for our failure to tell (Czech officials) about the real state of things and for misleading them," said the statement." We knew the truth would surface, but before that, we wanted to find out whether Europe can laugh at itself."

It would appear that, for Bulgaria at least, the "humour" fell rather flat.