Jaipur art summit's floating cow brought down by police

Artists Anish Ahluwalia and Chitan Upadhyay, who created a cow made of styrofoam suspended by a balloon, protested against the police action.

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Floating cow
Photo: Facebook/Chintan Upadhyay

Jaipur police brought down a plastic cow which was suspended by a balloon mid-air as part of an art installation on Saturday. The artists were even taken to the police station and interrogated over the 'The Bovine Divine' installation at the Jaipur Art Summit.

Artists Anish Ahluwalia and Chitan Upadhyay, who created a cow made of styrofoam suspended by a balloon, protested against the police action to remove the cow following which they taken to the police station, a report in the Indian Express said. No FIR has been registered in the matter yet.

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The artists claimed that the installation was intended to portray how a cow suffers when it consumes plastic. The cow was even garlanded and worshipped by protestors before the installation was dismantled seized by police, the report said.

"The message of the installation was harmony between humans and environment. Cows often scavenge for food and end up consuming plastic from the garbage, eventually dying from it. We had read about 10-15 kg of plastic being found in the stomach of deceased cows," the daily quoted Ahluwalia, as saying.

"The message through the installation was unclear. So when the police control room started getting calls, we reached the site and later brought the artists to the police station for questioning," SHO of the Bajaj Nagar police station Mahendra Gupta said.

Participants from 12 countries are in Jaipur to take part in the art summit being held at the Jawahar Kala Kendra.