Cattle drive
Every year in spring, the Skulpturenmuseum heralds the outdoor season with the traditional cattle drive of Samuel Buri's "Two Burgundy Cows" at Marls City-See. The festival spectacle for the whole family accompanies the two colorful cows "Dorothée" and "Niggel" on their way from the camp to their summer pasture on the island of the City-See. Traditionally, the spring walk around the lake is musically supported by the "Alphornbläser Marl" and the "Swing'n Oberkrain" sextet. In addition to handicraft activities for children, there is a small snack from the grill for all guests.
For 25 years now, the Almauftrieb has been one of the cultural spectacles in the city of Marl, after the two cows were assigned the island in the city lake in 1978. The two cows should be understood as images of consumer society. Painted with a colorful flowery meadow and a blue grid system on a white background, one half of the painted cow's body represents the romance of alpine meadows, which is often used in advertising. The other half is shaded in blue and presents the industrial reality in which meat production hardly takes animal welfare into account. In the 1960s and 1970s, Samuel Buri was one of the best-known Swiss artists. Cows are a popular motif in his work - they also adorn painted pictures of Buri, which stand out above all in color and shape. In the early 1970s, Buri created life-size sculptures of cows and painted them.
Unfortunately, the cattle drive had to be canceled in recent years due to the pandemic.
The next cattle drive is planned for Saturday, 22nd April 2023.