Do you know the Cow Parade? If you live in New York, Edinburgh, Sydney, Barcelona... you probably do because this event already took place there. But in Paris, it's a first. The idea is simply to ask several artists to turn fiberglass cows into modern art sculptures and to display them throughout the city. The result is stunning. In Paris there are about 100 cows (I photographed 8 more here). They will be sold at the end of June to the benefit of charitable causes. More here.
Update. These cows are also shown on Buenos Aeres Daily Photo and on Manila Daily Photo.
How cool is that! I love it!!! Thanks Eric for posting additional pictures!
ReplyDeleteIn SF, we have done the same thing with hearts, although there are not many hearts left anymore but there are a few around if you look carefully.
http://www.heartsinsf.com/project.html
Cows are more fun, though, and I'm sure they'd be very successful here. We'll be waiting :)
In New Orleans, they had fish, and in Lake Charles, Louisiana, they had gators. With funny titles-- for example, a litigator outside a law firm (with legal wig, robe and portfolio), and the airport had an avigator complete with silk scarf, goggles and biplane. You can see them here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gatorsonthegeaux.com/gatorvision.htm
holy cowsss!! I like this one best!! moooo....!
ReplyDeleteI love it! So sorry I missed this!
ReplyDeleteIn Iowa (where there are more pigs than people) they had pigs!
ReplyDeleteYes, we've had the cows and lately we have turtles. The creativity in the wide variety of styles and colors is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIn Seattle, we celebrate with pigs, too.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why it isn't salmon or orcas?
Une bonne vache! (Did I get that right? My French is awful.)
about five years ago i saw the cows in brussels, though i had no idea what they were for.
ReplyDeletei kept wandering around the city, bumping into cows and wondering what the connection was!
Wow!! Nice shot! Did you get down low for this one?
ReplyDeleteChicago had cows the summer of 1999. It was great fun for both tourists and residents. There were so many cows that the city printed a map to help people find all of them. My favorite was in front of a poster shop on Michigan Avenue. It was covered with tiny replicas of posters. So clever. They were sold in the fall, and the money went to various charities.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link:
http://www.chicagotraveler.com/cows_on_parade.htm
The cows are adorable! We don't have a cow parade in Toronto. I'm officially jealous :(
ReplyDeleteOooh, I love the black and gold one and the all white one! Those are great.
ReplyDeleteThis happened in Washington DC as well except that we had donkeys and elephants in tribute to the two political parties that rule this city: democrats and republicans.
ReplyDeleteWe also had a bunch of pandas on our college campus that they brought in from another city....
Interesting concept and I like that they are sold for charitable causes.
"Oh, la vache!" :-)
Love the cows, I hope they are still around when we get there in October!
ReplyDeletehere is one website that shows some of the donkeys and elephants that were in Washington DC......
ReplyDeletehttp://jophan.org/safari/
Gee Eric, you're "milking" this one for all it's worth. Good for you, but I wouldn't "udder" a word to anyone about your propensity to be at the right place at the right time "beef-or" all the comments are in. It could be too e-moo-tional!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and as usual, the photos are awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis is obviously an opera moo, singing for its milk!!
ReplyDeleteOk, ok, I can't resist Eric...you mention that "In Paris there are about 100 cows". How did you count them?
ReplyDeleteWith a Cowculator I suppose?
groan michael! I've never actually seen Edinburgh's cow parade...must look out for it!
ReplyDeleteMes élèves de 13 ans à Edimbourg viennent de finir un audio-guide podcast de la ville d'Edimbourg en français. Cliquez ici pour écouter. Laissez un message...ils seront ravis de lire vos commentaires!
This one is my favorite too. I saw cows in Zurich a few years ago. I wonder if it was the same kind of thing.
ReplyDelete:) very funny!
ReplyDeleteMichael is now our official PDP punster, don't you think? Well, he had inspiration; afterall, this IS a mooving piece of art. ;^)
ReplyDelete-Kim
Michael, I cow to you superior knowledge.
ReplyDeleteAll the cows around here are mooving targets, and you have to watch where you put your feet if you are after trying to get photograph.
Great image Eric.
Hier Gg avait dit... "Moi qui m'attendait à voir une grosse vache aujourd'hui… "
ReplyDelete> Eric. Non, je n'avais pas prévu de me prendre en photo aujourd'hui...
I didn't you changed your motorbike for a tricycle…
;o)
Sydney with a y thank you!
ReplyDeleteOups I didn't intended to be anonymous !
ReplyDeleteMais Eric, tu m'auras certainement reconnu plus haut !!!
Last summer was a Cow Parade here in Bucharest, very nice!!!
ReplyDeletehaha, Eric, this cow selling milk and the white one in the page are surely very funny...
ReplyDeleteQuite a popular theme--Racine Wisconsin has done dogs and cats, and my former home town of Grand Forks, North Dakota did--what else?--Forks!
ReplyDeleteGreat way to showcase artists, and get people walking around town (and patronizing local shops, instead of the mall.)
Maybe frogs will be next? ;O)
Michael, of course it's an awesome photo...Eric wouldn't give us a bum "steer." Your puns are "moo-sic" to my ears. I've got no "beef" with them at all!
ReplyDeleteSingle, you didn't have cows, but you had MOOSE, remember? http://www.toronto.ca/moose/home.htm with the "Moose in the City" project. I don't remember any such project here, though we sure have a lot of delivery triporteurs like the one the Parisian cow is driving. Think they deliver more beer than milk though...
ReplyDeleteIl n'y a pas de vaches folles, j'espère?
What a cool picture! I love it.
ReplyDeleteMerci, ça me donne une idée sortie ce weekend :-)
ReplyDeletemiami beach also did this project, with flamingos of course!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.miamibeachfl.gov/newcity/depts/arce/flamingos_pages/flamingo_list.asp
oops- try this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/penkw
Well, you know things are bad as an actor when a photo of a cow gets just as many comments as your picture. Sorry Tom!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE these cows! In San Jose a couple of years ago we had sharks (for our hockey team) and they were auctioned off as a fundraiser. I like cows more though. :)
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Eric. PDP is a lovely treat each day.
Well, Michael you lait it on thick, were you trying to see how many jokes you could creme into one sentence? You'll have to vache your step, veau I think Eric doesn't mind, although it's a little cuir that he hasn't complained.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm impressed Ham. I could never have done cow puns, in french, within an English sentence. You take the prize!
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm walking in Union Square here in NYC, I sometimes pass by one of the cows that somebody bought after NYC's Cow Parade. It always brings a smile to my face. It's in front of their apartment building.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the news about the Cow Parade in Paris. It is one more thing for me to see when I'm there in several weeks. Merci beaucoup, Eric!
Michael / Ham: I'm impressed too! Vachement impressionant!
ReplyDeleteHere you go, guys, a few ASCII cows right here:
http://tinyurl.com/re8l
(And besides, I , too, think it's kind of cool that a cow should get more comments than Tom Cruise! ;-)
ReplyDeleteEric, we had dinosaurs in Pittsburgh last summer. I think they had them for a charity auction, too.
ReplyDeleteMichael, the cowculator joke was awful! But I loved it.
Great :-)...i know the first thing i am going to see in two weeks !
ReplyDeleteThanks Eric.
i still do not know if the cow is funnie - tom cruis is funnie - or the comments are funnie. i think i will chose d. all of the above.
ReplyDeleteI just read in our papers today about the cow parade in Paris.I am from South Africa and it cought my eye because we also had such a parade in 2004/2005.The cows were on display in Johannesburg and Cape Town and then sold for charity.
ReplyDeleteyes, in Washington first we had the Party Animals (the donkeys & elephants) and then pandas. someone in my neighborhood bought a panda and put it in their front yard. I see it when I walk to the park.
ReplyDeleteOh my! this is really cool!!! xD
ReplyDeleteMichael, Ham and Buzzgirl, great job!! What an entertaining little interlude this was! And, of course, thanks for the great photographic inspiration, Eric.
ReplyDeleteHi Buzzgirl, I hope you don't mind, but I haven't been able to leave comments on your blog. Your trip to Paris sounds fantastic and the story about Eric is great! Glad someone finally got a picture of him!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Buzzgirl, I just went back to your blog and saw that you noticed that the commenting is quiet as well. I think you've turned on the monitoring option so you have to "approve" them before they show up...or deselect the option in Blogger. Hope that helps.
ReplyDeleteJe les ai même vu à Buenos Aires !
ReplyDeleteJ'aime beaucoup cette initiative.
I love it!
ReplyDeleteYou will be able to see my cows on
www.aphotographerinparis.com
(dayinparisblog)
Great photo! I saw the ones in New York, but this is the most original I've seen. Genius!
ReplyDeleteBuzzgirl: I agree with Michael. Comment moderation is a nice, handy feature to have, just in case, but it also discourages people to comment because it kills the spontaneity.
ReplyDeleteMichael, you were right. I'm a dork. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou're not a dork...just a little problem with your cowments. They were almost as fun to read as your adventures.
ReplyDeletevery funny megan!!
ReplyDeleteMegan: ROFL in San Francisco!!!
ReplyDeleteHello everyone, with 63 comments on this photo so far(not that I cownt...) I regret not to be able to answer everybody personnally.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your comments, I love you all!
At last I have something to contribute, albeit a day late. I believe this whole craze started in the 1990s when New Mexico started an art competition to benefit local schools. Local artists created life-sized ponies and artists and children decorated them - from there a full-scale booming business was born. View these beautiful works of art or purchase figurines at
ReplyDeletehttp://www.trailofpaintedponies.com/originals_main.html
Holy cow! I haven't laughed this hard in ages! Thanks guys.
ReplyDeleteIn Buffalo, NY, we had the same thing with buffalos, of course :)
ReplyDeleteAnd we had the same thing here in Stockholm last year! But they were all in the same shape, not original ones like this cow!
ReplyDeleteNice photo!
here in moscow it's the same! in the biggest shop in the city they have installed those cows, which i actually find quite ugly... i don't know why but i find it bad tasted... may be the french cows look better :)
ReplyDeleteOkay, okay Megan...that one was bad. Here's one for the ladies:
ReplyDeleteQ: Why can't men get mad cow disease?
A: Because we're pigs.
I guess I'm not much of a lady, then, because I' thought Megan's joke was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteOink.
Ah, the cows are in Paris! They get around! Did anyone happen to see them in the opening ceremonies of the Torino olympics?
ReplyDeleteCow Parade does ultimately sell these beautified bovines to benefit selected charities, but sadly the CP corporation itself did not pay the Swiss sculptor who created the original model for the most widely used Cow Parade cow (the standing one). Pfff.
Tomate, I didn't say I did not like Megan's joke, just that it was a bad one! ;-)
ReplyDeleteKansas City had one, too. Vancouver has a few killer whales and grizzly bears.
ReplyDeleteMichael, you mean when "bad" means "good?" ;)
ReplyDeleteTF - Yes, that's why I'm ALWAYS "good"! LOL
ReplyDeleteThat's real phat, Michael.
ReplyDelete;)