Hasta La Ideas

Photographs of Aurora, a giant marionette polar bear created to promote Greenpeace’s Save The Arctic campaign have been released, in advance of the bear’s ‘walk’ through London this Sunday…

CR previously reported on Aurora back in August, when the bear was still at design stage. A series of beautiful sketches of the puppet were released (and can be seen in the original article here), and we’re happy to report that the actual bear amply lives up to expectation, as these images show.

The puppet, which is designed by Christopher Kelly and has been specially commissioned for Greenpeace, is the size of a double-decker bus and weighs around three tonnes. She will require 15 puppeteers to operate on Sunday, alongside 20 volunteers to haul her through the streets. As she walks through the city she will emit gutteral rumblings, and her roar will be accompanied by the sound of ice breaking and animals bellowing. Following the bear will be thousands of supporters as well as a parade of “Arctic-inspired carnivalesque performers”.

Aurora is the focal piece of the UK leg of Greenpeace’s global day of action to protect the Arctic. The parade on Sunday will begin at 12pm at Victoria Tower Gardens, next to Parliament, and will finish at the Shell headquarters on Jubilee Gardens. For more info on the route and the day in general, visit the Greenpeace website here.