Peeing Statues, Bronze fountain at Cihelná street, Prague, Czech Republic

The Peeing Statues are two bronze male figures positioned facing each other in a water pool shaped like the Czech Republic, located in front of the Franz Kafka Museum. They can be controlled remotely via text messages to create words and messages using their water streams.

David Černý made the sculpture in 2004, the year the Czech Republic joined the European Union; he said urinating is a pleasurable act, as the accession was for the nation. It stands by the Franz Kafka Museum in Malá Strana. Some read it as a comment on politicians' attitude to the country, and Mariusz Szczygieł saw in it the Czechs' detached view of their own symbols.

Černý said urination is a pleasurable act, likening it to the Czech Republic's 2004 entry into the European Union, which he called pleasant for the nation. Mariusz Szczygieł reads the work as evidence of the Czechs' ironic distance from their own history and national symbols; some viewers see politicians' attitude to the country in it.

The sculpture stands at Cihelní 2b in Malá Strana, beside the Franz Kafka Museum. Messages are sent by SMS to direct the streams, so a phone is needed to make the figures write. The moving hips and penises have been damaged from time to time, so the mechanism may not always respond.

The artist said the peeing was meant to mark the Czech Republic's 2004 entry into the European Union, calling urination a pleasant act like the accession itself. Writer Mariusz Szczygieł reads the work as evidence of the Czechs' ironic distance from their own national symbols.