Czech artist David Cerny, whose Entropa artwork depicting Bulgaria as a collection of Turkish toilets caused controversy in Bulgaria in January 2009, has triggered an angry backlash from ultra-nationalist Ataka party four days ahead of his planned visit to Bulgaria.

Cerny is invited to attend the opening of a modern art exhibition entitled "European art  - 20 years after the Iron Curtain" scheduled for October 10 2009 in the city of Plovdiv.

Cerny's visit, at the invitation of the exhibition's curator Emil Mirazchiev, is opposed by Ataka's city councillors who have issued a declaration condemning the Czech artist. They are calling on Plovdiv mayor Slavcho Atanasov to forbid Cerny's participation in the exhibition and are asking Plovdiv's residents to protest against "the visit of a person who has publicly disgraced Bulgaria", BTA news agency said.

The Cerny scandal erupted in January this year when his art installation was displayed at the European Council building in Brussels.

The work, entitled Entropa, is a satirical artwork 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 was 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 be removed. "It is preposterous, a disgrace," Betina Joteva, spokeswoman of the Bulgarian permanent representation to the EU, said. "It is a humiliation for the Bulgarian nation and an affront  to our national dignity."

Czech minister of European affairs Aleksandr Vondra formally apologised, but Bulgaria demanded the work be taken down.

After several days of heated reactions from Bulgaria the artwork was partially hidden behind a black cloth. It is this black cloth which Cerny is expected to display in Plovdiv on October 10 2009.