記看牛 On Cow Watching

Cow Parade這個活動已經有超過十五年以上的歷史。打從知道這個公共藝術活動以來，就對它一直很好奇，滿腦子有著許多問號，想看看一個城市要怎麼被牛群給入侵…2005年底，這活動終於到了一個離家不太遠的城市 – 佛羅倫斯。從知道牛群要入侵佛羅倫斯以後，我便打定要專程到佛羅倫斯看牛。
The event “Cow Parade” has a history of more than 15 years. I’ve been curious about it since I got to know its existence. There’re lots of question marks in my mind, and I want to know how a cowherd can invade a city. At the end of 2005, it finally arrived a reachable place – Florence. Since I got to know about the news, I made up my mind that I’d go to Florence for cow hunting.

已經有很久沒有為了要出門而興奮到睡不著了。其實我也不知道自己到底為什麼輾轉難眠，也許因為隔天一早七點要出發，也許更因為自己盼這個活動已經盼了好幾年…一出門，看到清朗粉藍的天空，即使外頭只有零下三度，我的腦子還是隨著朝陽慢慢清醒了過來。
I haven’t been so excited for a while. Actually I don’t know why I just couldn’t fall asleep, maybe because we planned to leave home around 7am, maybe because I’ve been looking forward to seeing it for such a long time. When we left home, the sky was clear with pinky blue. Even though it’s minus three degrees, my mind gradually waked up with the rising sun.

抵達佛羅倫斯時尚未正午，只是錯估了佛羅倫斯市內的交通擁塞，又巧遇佛羅倫斯時尚週，一時之間我好像回到了捷運尚在施工期間台北市東區的下班時間，從進入市區到停好車，竟然也花了將近兩個小時，我們也只能以「既來之則安之」自我解嘲。
We arrived Florence before noon. However, we mistakenly evaluate the traffic in the Florence city and we happened to go during the Pitti Fashion Show. It seems to me that I’ve returned to east Taipei in traffic hour before the MRT was completed. It took us about two hours to park! What can we say? It’s us that chose to come at this time of the year.

用完午餐以後，我們到旅客服務中心去要了地圖，展開了在佛羅倫斯的「獵牛」之旅。
After we finished our lunch, we went to the information center to get a map and started our cow hunting.

基本上，我對於這次獵牛行動是有點失望的。一方面是因為地圖標示的並不清楚，我們大概有一半以上沒看到（儘管看到的另一半也讓我們從兩點多不停地走到將近七點），一方面則是因為我看到了民眾的公德心是如何地低落。這裡所謂的民眾，並不單純指義大利人，畢竟在佛羅倫斯這個觀光城市，大部分在市中心活動的都是外籍遊客。美國小妞跳到牛上照相，日本先生走過牛旁邊順便拍一下屁股，加上每一件作品幾乎都遇上了人為破壞的情形，讓我不禁大嘆，許多民眾的公德素養有待加強。
Basically I was disappointed by this event. One reason is because the indications as to where the cowherds are located are not very clear. So we missed more than half of the pieces (though our unstopping walk from 2-7pm only brought us through half of the collection). The other reason is through this event I saw how low people’s civil senses are. What I called “people” here is not indicated only to Italians. After all, Florence is a popular and tourist city, and most of the people in city center are foreigners. American girls jumped onto a piece to take photos, Japanese man slapped the cow butt when walking by, and almost every piece of work encountered vandalism. I was really feeling sorry about what I saw.

活動本身並不如我預期中的精采，也許因為我期待看到多一點宣傳推廣，少一點人為破壞。儘管如此，照片還是拍了不少，就當作這次獵牛記的紀念，有興趣的人可以利用連結到相本去觀賞照片。
The event itself is not as good as I expected. It’s probably because I was expecting to see more promotion and actually “celebration” of public arts and less vandalism. Complaints apart, I still took some photos as remembrance and if you’re interested please clink on the link to visit my photo album.

Cow Parade Official Site