Name of the tool

The Entropa Game – an example of dealing with stereotypes in the European Union   

Links to the keystones
awareness, knowledge

Aim of tool/ Brief overall description

In January 2009, when the Czech Republic took over the presidency of the European Union, a scandal haunted the European countries: to mark the occasion of its presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Czech Republic had the sculpture  Entropa, created by Czech artist David Černý, unveiled on 12 January 2009. The sculpture was supposed to have been created jointly by 27 artists and artist groups from all member countries of the EU; but in a hoax, Černý and his three assistants had created a satirical and controversial work depicting pointed stereotypes of European nations and fake artist profiles complete with invented descriptions of their supposed contributions. The display in the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels caused an uproar from some member states, especially Bulgaria.

Main methods

Single work
Group work

Description of the process and the possible stepping stones

1. The pictures of the parts of the national descriptions in the Entropa sculpture are shown without naming the countries. The task is to match the Entropa parts to the described European countries- in a kind of a riddle, who is who after David Cerny?
2. The” real” meanings of the country descriptions are shown in a second powerpoint presentation
3. A discussion follows, where the given or not given stereotypes of the shown countries emerged from.
4. A group work of 4-5 persons follows via Internet research, how the provocation of David Cerny was solved inside the EU.

Equipment

Beamer/Laptop

Author
Dr. Bernd Hainmüller, European Coordinator of TICKLE

Institution

Staatliches Seminar für Didaktik und Lehrerbildung (GHS) Offenburg, Germany