Last week I had the opportunity to spend two days in Brussels, Belgium. Of course, I used my first spare minute to see the exhibit that stirred a storm of controversy across Europe - the infamous "Entropa".

I rushed into the lobby of the European Council building and there it was! It looks like a giant plastic child toy, with colorful snap-out parts, sounds and lights. Yes, Romania is a Dracula theme-park; France is covered with the inscription "Strike!"; Sweden looks like an IKEA box; the Netherlands are series of minarets submerged by flood; Germany, with its network of motorways, resembles a swastika; Spain is buried under concrete; Italy is a giant football stadium; Slovakia - a sausage wrapped with a string with the colors of the Hungarian flag; Denmark is composed of Lego blocks, which seen from afar remind of the Mohamed caricatures that fired up the Arab world in 2006 and the Finish are a bunch of dinosaurs, sitting on barren land.

"Entropa" is provocative, funny, witty, ingenious, I thought. Then I saw Bulgaria. No, not the squat toilet that triggered heated debates and angered many Bulgarians, especially officials at European Institutions and at home. The toilet was gone, covered by a untidy, shabby looking black cloth.

In the lobby of the Justus Lipsius building, this kind of response, this running away from the facts, seemed so inadequate that it felt much more insulting than the image of the squat toilet.

At the exhibit's inauguration, Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra officially apologized to Bulgaria and offered Bulgarian diplomats to hold constructive discussions about ways to repair the damage. The talks obviously led to the black cloth.

It is true, "Entropa", which was supposed to be the prominent symbol of the Czech Presidency of the EU, caused the Czechs some embarrassment and discomfort, but they surely knew what to expect when they commissioned the work to the "enfant terrible" of Czech art - David Cerny. The choice, itself, speaks to their anticipation and desire to have something provocative, clever, controversial.

After all, Cerny is the one who painted a Soviet tank, a Second World War memorial in Prague, bright pink in the early 1990s. This, as well as his other pranks, has not been a secret to anyone. Let's not forget that the Czechs gave the world Yaroslav Hasek and his "Good Soldier Sveik".

Maybe they got more than what they wished for? Maybe Cerny's own apologies for misleading his government, the promise that he would return the money, or the explanation that this was "just art" and he wanted to "see if Europe could laugh at itself" are not enough and not an excuse... But we must give him credit for seizing the opportunity to poke fun, promote his work and avoid censorship.

Well, almost. Bulgaria, somehow, managed to censor "Entropa".

Michael Archer recently wrote for the British "The Guardian": "Well, I laughed. But then I'm not from Bulgaria."

It is hard for a Bulgarian in Brussels to laugh, even smile. Certainly, not just because of Entropa, the toilet and the black cloth...

Of course, being perceived as a toilet is not flattering. But the ragged black spot on the map of Europe isn't either. Instead of trying to repair the image, those in power in Bulgaria resorted to the good old censorship, embedded deeply in their minds since Communist times. It was easy then: "What we don't like must be taken away, removed, covered and it would never bother us again." They have yet to realize that the times have changed.

The European Council lobby was filled with visitors, flocking from all over to see "Entropa." People around me were pointing at the different countries, checking out maps, laughing. Even the Brits, despite the fact that their country was absent from Europe altogether. All, without any exception, asked about Bulgaria - either where the toilet was, either what was behind the black cloth. The censorship did not work.

Maybe the Mayor of the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Balchik, who wrote Cerny to tell him that art must not be construed literally, invited him to have his own art display in the town and promised to show him that Bulgaria could be associated with much more pleasant things, was the only one with the right reaction?

Otherwise we face the choice to continue to be seen either as Europe's toilet or Europe's black stain. And what kind of a choice is that?

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