Perm City to host Russia’s Ice and Snow Sculpture Cup “Winter Vernissage”
The 6th open competition of Russia’s Ice and Snow Sculptures Cup “Winter Vernissage” will start in Perm on the Sunday of January 13, 2019. The competition brings together 22 sculptors from Chine, Malaysia, Russia and the first timer of the competition – the participants from Singapore.
On January 13, 2019 the ceremonial opening of the competition and toss-up will be held in the conference hall of the New Star Hotel, and the teams will start their work in the main venue – the Ice Town named “The Wind from the East” at 17.20.
22 professional sculptors boasting portfolios of numerous prestigious professional rewards will be turning the ice cubes into the work of art. They come to Perm from China, Malaysia, other Russian cities and for the first time in the history of the cup – from Singapore.
This year topic for all the participants is “Japanese tunes”. The teams will use 30 huge ice cubes to produce the sculptures from their sketches just in 5 days - January 14 to 18. The daily working hours for all the teams will be fixed between 9.20 am to 7.20 pm with no works to be held beyond these hours as per the competition regulations. Thus the competition becomes a non-stop marathon which requires not only maximum skills and physical fitness from the participants but also brings about the need to work with a difficult material under any weather conditions.
Before the start of the festival, the organizers put together some interesting statistics: the 10-year history of the competition features 176 participants from nearly all continents. 70 unique sculptures have been produced , using over 2 000 tons of ice; thousands of Perm residents and guests were watching the process of creating the ice sculptures.
70% of participants this year are family teams, like the Kokorins brithers from Yekaterinburg, the Argunovs – father and son – from Yakutsk, the Mistryukov brothers from Ryasan.
The Perm City residents and guest will be able to witness the sculptors work as the ice sculptures will be made at the venue of the Ice Town in the center of the city, thus open to everybody. The competition’s ice productions will complement the existing ice objects hopefully lasting until spring. For the first time the organizers will start guided tours round the ice sculptures (more information on these will come soon).
The competition is organized jointly by the administration of Perm City, the Russia’s Sculptors Foundation “Yedinenie” (Unity) and is sponsored by the culture ministries of Russia and the Perm Region. The competition is part of the “Perm Period: the New Time” Festival.