01/ 15/ 04 In 2004 the city will belong to cows

/PRAGUE, 15 Jan. 2004/ - From June of this year onwards Prague will become the venue for a unique world-wide open-air project entitled CowParade. Two hundred life-sized coloured sculptures of cows, created by both established and unknown Czech artists, will be situated in the places most frequented by tourists throughout the city centre for four months.

Serge Borenstein and Bessel Kok, licence holders for the CowParade in the Czech Republic, officially launched the CowParade Prague 2004 at a press conference today. "I first saw this bovine exhibition in the streets of Brussels and was immediately smitten," remembers Borenstein. "I knew then that we had to bring the CowParade to Prague," adds Bessel Kok. They present the CowParade Prague 2004 in cooperation with Eurotel. "We like supporting bold projects that bring together various areas of human activity, give people amusement and, in addition, have a virtuous intention," says Diana Dobálová, Eurotel?s press spokeswoman, who is a co-organiser of the CowParade Prague 2004.

The organisation of this entertaining cultural social event is taking place under the aegis of the Prague mayor, Pavel Bém, and the city councillor for culture and tourism, Igor Nemec. "In my opinion historic Prague shouldn't be closed to such interesting projects, which will bring to its the streets interactive entertainment and fun for broadest public," said Mayor Bém. Councillor Nemec added: "Location of colourful sculptures of cows will form an interesting contrast to Prague historical monuments."

As well as gracing open spaces, increasing tourism, and supporting local artists, who have the chance to participate in the exhibition via the website www.cowparade.cz, the event will earn money for children's charity projects by means of a final auction in October 2004. For instance the Krtek Foundation, which operates in the Oncology Institution in Brno, will be helped to acquire an essential investigation appliance.

Registered authors creating designs from which the sponsors and owners of cows choose. Authors of chosen designs then create the cows according to them. That means that each cow or heard will have its sponsor or owner, which can be any natural person or legal entity.

The sponsoring fee for one cow is Czech crowns 195 thousand, in case of purchase it is Czech crowns 245 thousand. While sponsored cows will be publicly auctioned at the end of exhibition, which will be patronised by international auction house Sotheby's, purchased sculptures will remain with their owners.

The concept of the CowParade came into being in 1998 in Zurich and over the following years has been held very successfully in eighteen capitals of the world, e.g. Chicago, New York, Sydney, Houston, London and Brussels. Along with Prague, this year the CowParade will visit Stockholm, Manchester and Harrisburg in Pennsylvania.

Communication of the CowParade Prague 2004 project is being realised by the agencies MARK BBDO, IMPACT and OMD of the Brand Group.

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