The idea of the Cow Parade originated in Zurich in 1998. Hundreds of life size cows were decorated by local artists and then put on display in public spaces for several months. At the end of the exhibit, the cows were auctioned off to raise money for charity. Most of the cows were purchased by local businesses, and some of them can still be found at entrances to restaurants or stores. I found this blue cow resting in the front yard of an expensive looking house in the hilly Zuriberg neighborhood, so it seems this one was purchased by a wealthy art collector, rather than a business.The Cow Parade caught on and soon brightly painted fiberglass cows were seen parading around other cities throughout the world: Chicago, New York, London, Sao Paulo, Mexico…Since then, Zurich has applied the same public art concept to other themes such as benches, and two summers ago the city was invaded by giant teddy bears. I’ve also seen codfish in Boston, and lions in Munich.
Has your city hosted a cow parade? Or did you have lions, tigers, or bears (oh my!) instead?
6 comments:
you mentioned chicago, and yes we had the cow parade a few years back! i'll have to post a cow now, well sometime soon...great post!
No cow parades here, but I like the idea!
Paris hosted a cow parade last year for a few months. I enjoyed the Bear parade in Berlin and Lions Parade in Leipzig very much as well. :)
Hi Ainz - I don't want to be a swot, but is that really a cow parade cow? It doesn't look like the same model to me. But it's a great photo anyway and illustretes the ways of the great and the good up on the Züriberg!
I visited Zurich during the cow parade, and I have a photo of myself posing with one of the cows...a blue fiesta cow. I remember the train station also had hanging cows...what a trip that was seeing them hanging there like that.
There're quite a few gazing around on the Singapore island and they're even printed on car decals!
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