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Funchal
(Fr. da Sé) Madeira (ilha) Reg. Aut. da Madeira Avenida do Infante
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Blumen für den FriedenFlowers for Peace |
João Egídio Rodrigues
2003 |
This time it was not just the noble white horses of the Spanish Riding School which enthralled residents and tourists in Vienna. Sixty-two life-size plastic "Lipizzaner" adorned the city in the summer of 2003. The idea was not new, elks in Toronto, bears in Berlin, camels in Dubai and Cows in Salzburg, Zürich and other cities. The idea was generally to sell blanks to sponsors and companies, dedicate the event to a good cause, and, temporarily, brighten up the cityscape.
The events agency all about communication & eventGmbH adapted this idea and put it into a Viennese perspective. After the initiators had decided on horses, it was clear to them that it had to be a Lipizzaner.
The miniature which served as the model for a 70cm horse figure was found at the Viennese porcelain makers Augarten Vienna Porcelain Manufactory. The small porcelain Lipizzaner is taken from a figure from the high school of dressage, "Piaffe" being a variation of the trot gait, sometimes described as "trotting in place." The rider was left out and after modeling the horse the first Lipizzaner art-object was created through several phases of small adjustments. Using this model the Swiss based company Klarer Freizeitanlagen AG produced the sculptures from glass fiber. Their subsidiary company Art on Streets had already produces the cows for Zürich and has become specialists in the production of diverse plastic animals.
Companies, private persons, sponsors, and artists took part in the "greatest open-air exhibition of 2003." The sculptures, about 2m high and weighing 70kg, could be purchased for €2,388. Design of the horses was up to the owners, one could allow one's own creative juices to flow or engage an artist. The only conditions were that each horse was individually designed, with contractual clauses forbidding political or religious motifs, immoral or illegal inscriptions, and advertisements, the owners could otherwise present their horses just as they liked.
Nr. 62 is owned by Alberto João Cardoso Gonçalves Jardim, president of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, who took the horse home after the exhibit and placed it in the garden of his residential palace Quinta Vigia.
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