The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival is one of the world's largest ice and snow art events and has brought together thousands of artists from around the world every winter since 1985.
A number of local and international competitions take place during the Festival. For Latvia, the two most important are the International Snow Sculpture Competition and the International Ice Sculpture Competition, as Latvia has its own world champion in both of them. This time, the results of the Ice Sculpture Competition will be announced on 8 January and the results of the Snow Sculpture Competition – on 13 January. But the artworks will be on display as long as the weather conditions allow.
Latvian artists first went to Harbin in 2006, but it was 2011 that Kārlis Īle together with Mintauts Buškevics won the first championship for Latvia with their sculpture "Alice in Wonderland".
A year later, in 2012, the Latvian team took home already two trophies. At the Ice Sculpture Competition, Kārlis Īle created the composition "Life Book" and got the honourable second place. In the same year, team of Kārlis Īle, Agnese Rudzīte-Kirillova and Maija Puncule achieved world championship at the Snow Sculpture Competition with the work "Dreamers".
According to the festival's rules, each category has one first prize winner, two second prize winners, and three third prize winners. Artists can work individually or in teams. At the Ice Sculpture Competition, no more than two persons are allowed in each team, while snow sculptures can be created by up to four people in a team. Each team is provided with a block of ice or snow with fixed dimensions, which, by use of various tools and techniques, has to be turned into a miraculous work of art in just two-and-a-half days.
Considering previous achievements of Latvian artists, their participation at the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has been included in the cultural programme of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU. With presidency’s financial support, four artists – Kārlis Īle, Maija Puncule, Mintauts Buškevics un Ainars Zingniks – will arrive in Harbin to show the world again that Latvia excels not only in winter sports, but also in winter arts.
The presidency of the Council of the EU is both a responsibility and an opportunity for Latvia. It provides a possibility to contribute not only to the political agenda, but to also inspire the European and worldwide public by offering a wide and outstanding public diplomacy and culture programme.
