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.
Photo: Lin Tzu-hsiang, Taipei Times
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.
Photo: Hsieh Wu-hsiung, Taipei Times
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.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary