Within days of being placed in front of the church as part of the CowParade, a group of protestors secretly moved the sculpture to the nearby Liberal House, an information centre and meeting place run by the Alliance of Free Democrats, one of Hungary?s parliamentary parties.
The cow has been moved to Vörösmarty Square, at the end of Váci utca, the city?s main pedestrian street.
The sculpture?s creators, András Hajdu, Balázs Magashegyi and Krisztián Imre, agree that the new location serves their idea well. What better place than Vörösmarty Square to feel the big-city heat wave? The artists add that they hope the sculpture will not offend anyone at its new location.
?We did not want to cause indignation, we only wanted to create something that draws people?s attention,? Hajdu said.
Gergely Csikós, the CowParade?s main organiser in Hungary, also contends the sculpture was never meant to upset people. ?The statue was not intended to be a provocation, it has no religious or political message, and we would like to consider the matter closed after moving it to the new location,? Csikós said.
The CowParade is an international public art exhibition which has been featured in major cities all over the world. For the exhibition, fiberglass sculptures of cows are decorated by local artists and distributed around the city centre. After the exhibit finishes, usually after several months, the cows are auctioned off and the proceeds donated to charity.
In Budapest, the CowParade features fifty works on display from June 30 until September 10.
