Teams from Italy, Russia and Japan have become winners of the International Cup in Snow and Ice Sculpture “Zimniy Vernissage”
The jury judged the entries in the 4th Open International Cup in Snow and Ice Sculpture “Zimniy Vernissage”.
The sculptors, the jury and the competition’s organizers welcomed Dmitry Samoilov, Chief Executive of Perm City Administration, Aleksey Gribanov, Deputy Chief Executive of Perm City Administration, and Vyacheslav Torchinsky, Head of the Department for Culture and Youth Policy at the official award ceremony.
“I would like to thank our partners – the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Ministry for Culture, Youth Policy and Mass Communication of Perm Krai as well as the Fund of Sculptors of Russia “Edinenie” headed by Aleksey Tjutnev. I have seen all the sculptures – they are wonderful! The snow and ice sculptures have become a real decoration of our city, and I hope Permites and the city visitors will enjoy them”, said Dmitry Samoilov in his welcome speech.
It took less than a week to create 20 masterpieces made of snow and ice on the city esplanade. Despite the warm weather, all the 20 teams from 9 countries were able to complete the sculptures on time. All the sculptures are supposed to express the authors’ vision of the theme “My Small Motherland”. The topic, however limited it might seem, was expressed in an astonishing variety of sculptures and ideas. For example, Nipon Sasarn and Kowit Siebunroung, the representatives of Thailand, created an ice sculpture of a dragon-like god. Natalia Mumbru and Laura Medinilla, sculptures from Argentina, devoted their work to the bandoneon, a national musical instrument that represents the diverse culture and emotional character of Argentinians. The united team from Latvia and Lithuania, Donatas Mockus and Inese Valtere Ulande, created “Planet NrEarth”, a snow sculpture expressing their international and pacifistic idea of the “Motherland” concept.
“Approximately 30 international snow and ice sculpture festivals take place each year. These events contribute greatly to the cross-cultural communication and help sculptures to grow professionally. I think Perm has every opportunity to develop its ice and snow sculpture competition”, said Ukhani Lillberg, a juror, President of the International Snow and Ice Sculpture Association.
Maria Sparzhina, a juror of the competition, the Head of the Fine Arts Division of the Department for the State Support of Arts and Folk Crafts at the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, shares the same opinion:
“Perm Krai has everything to develop this wonderful and promising project. I would like to note that the Fund of Sculptors works a lot with creative young people: the art is “getting younger”, which is good. The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation thinks that this event helps to prevent the commercialization of art. The Ministry has founded government scholarships – grants for the Cup winners to encourage sculptors to participate in this competition. We hope that it will take place again next year”.
In addition to the government grants, the winners won the Cup’s awards. “My Small Motherland”, the work by the team from Italy (Vania Cusini and Lidia Vigano) became the First Prize winner in the Snow Sculpture category while “The Living Journey of Our Fish” created by Vitaliy Lednev (Izhevsk, Russia) and Junichi Nakamura (Japan) won the First Prize in the Ice Sculpture category.
“I learned about the Cup of Russia in Snow and Ice Sculpture in 2013. I am very happy to have been selected for this competition and to be able to present my work here. “Winter Vernissage” is the event that promotes an incredibly friendly atmosphere and the cooperation between the sculptors. As far as the topic of the competition is concerned, my “Small Motherland” is Livigno, a small resort town located in the heart of the Rhaetian Alps. We devoted our work to books and all those stories that they are full of”, says Vania Cusini.
Permites and city visitors can enjoy the sculptures in the Bukva-Grad ice park on the city esplanade. They will be removed when the ice park is closed.
