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Elephant Parade visits Amsterdam |
AMSTERDAM, March 12th 2009 – From September onwards, a hundred full
size art elephants will swarm the streets of Amsterdam: together, they
form a remarkable open-air exhibition, the Elephant Parade, that is
dedicated to the Asian elephant. After the successful editions in
Rotterdam and Antwerp, the exhibition in Amsterdam will be the largest
so far.
The Elephant Parade is founded by father and son Mike and Marc Spits.
With their project, they aim to raise attention for the Asian elephant,
that is threatened with extinction. Their project has proven to be
succesful: the first two editions of the Elephant Parade, held in
Rotterdam and Antwerp, raised a total amount of over 700,000 euro. The
benefits of the Elephant Parade are donated to the Elephant Family, the
largest elephant charity in the world.
Mike Spits: “Today, there are less than 4,500 elephants living in
Thailand. After my father and I visited the country a few years ago and
got to see for ourselves how bad the situation is, we decided we wanted
to do something to help these beautiful animals. Our project supports
several local organisations in Thailand, like the first elephant
hospital in the world in Lampang, where baby elephant Mosha recently
received her new prothestic leg.”
The Elephant Parade will take place from 5 September until 31 October.
During these months, the art elephants can be found at several top
locations in the city center, such as the Museumplein. After the
exhibition, on 12 November, the elephants will be auctioned at the
Westergasterrein by auction house Christie’s.
The first major sponsor has already joined the Elephant Parade: design
furniture brand Topform has adopted thirty elephants that will be
painted by internationally renown designers.
A few of the Topform elephants have already received a coat of paint:
top artists Ans Markus and Jan des Bouvrie painted their designs last
week. Renowned artists and designers such as Corneille, Rob Scholte and
Menno Baars are also voluntarily committing to this project.
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