《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Blaze toasts Hofman’s ‘Moon Rabbit’
The remains of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s giant “Moon Rabbit” installation lie on a bunker in Dayuan Township, Taoyuan County, yesterday after it caught fire while workers were dismantling it. Photo: Lin Tzu-hsiang, Taipei Times
SMOKED HARE: The 25m-long artwork had been intended for the recycling heap. The artist reportedly took the demise of his creation philosophically
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s Moon Rabbit was partially destroyed in a fire yesterday as the crew of the Taoyuan Landscape Art Festival tried to dismantle the installation following the end of the festival on Sunday night.
The Taoyuan County Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs said it suspected that the equipment being used to dismantle and recycle the 25m-long rabbit was faulty and that sparks coming out of an exhaust pipe might have sparked a grass fire, which then spread to the artwork.
The county’s fire department would conduct an investigation into the blaze in Dayuan Township (大園), county officials said.
The fire destroyed the head, left hand and other parts of the rabbit.
Wang Yu-ling (王玉齡), Blue Dragon Art Co manager and the festival’s organizer, said the company had informed Hofman about the fire, and that his first question was whether anyone had been hurt.
“After learning that nobody was injured, he then jokingly said that the fire may have happened because the rabbit had been showered with the love and passion from 2.46 million visitors over the past 11 days, adding that the rabbit may have decided to bid everybody goodbye in a dramatic way,” Wang said.
Hofman also said the rabbit had “fought a good fight,” and the lovely image of the rabbit would always stay with festival visitors, according to Wang.
The accident brought back memories of the misfortunes that befell Hofman’s 16.5m-tall Rubber Duck sculptures, with one bursting on Dec. 31 last year in Keelung.
According to the Landscape Art Festival organizer, Hofman created the Moon Rabbit specifically for Taiwan.
After being told that his work would be exhibited during the Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, he then asked about the origin of the festival and found the story of the rabbit accompanying the Goddess of the Moon Chang’e (嫦娥) very imaginative.
Hofman thought the story showed the rabbit was such a hard worker — it is always busy mixing the elixir of life for the goddess — that it deserved a rest, which is why he designed the Moon Rabbit to rest against an old bunker.
The artist also tried to recreate the fluffiness of a real rabbit by applying more than 12,000 pieces of Tyvek, a high-density polyethylene fiber material, on the wood and polystyrene sculpture.
新聞來源:TAIPEI TIMES
Visitors to the Taoyuan Landscape Arts Festival look at Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s Moon Rabbit in Dayuan Township on Sunday night. Photo: Hsieh Wu-hsiung, Taipei Times