Homemade winter fairy tales – snow art from around the world

This year we were not blessed with a great deal of snow, and it is rather unlikely that we will get enough snow for the purposes described below.

It's a shame, really, at least for the suggestions this article provides, but you can make a note for next year so that you have a really good idea for an artistic use of the accumulating snow masses at hand in the middle of the fight against an annoying snow chaos on your doorstep.

What on earth are we talking about? Snow art events, where incredible art can be created from humble snow. To whet your appetite, here are a few examples of snow festivals from last winter:

In the Swiss municipality of Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland, snow was piled and compacted, polished and chiseled, sawn and smoothed from January 21st to 26th, 2013 – for the 31st time. The “World Snow Festival” launched in 1983 with a rather enormous Heidi figure, which was (of course) made by Japanese snow artists.

This year's participation was once again international: 10 teams from 10 countries created their striking snow sculptures . A Heidi was thankfully absent this year; in fact, figurative representation seems to be less and less in demand in snow art definitely dominating the festival this year abstract geometric works.

First place went to a huge Velogemel by the Swiss artist team, who before the exhibition of this snow artwork were certainly among the few who knew what a Gemel is: a snow vehicle with runners, usually made of wood, which has only been built in Grindelwald for 100 years.

True to the theme “125 Years of Winter Sports in the Glacier Village,” the German team also submitted an entry: The capital letters “CXXV,” representing the Latin number 125, secured second place. Also worth mentioning is the depiction of a cheerful young woman with a snowboard in her arms (South Korea, 1st place in the audience vote) and a large, holey cheese snowball by the artists from Slovenia, which received 3rd place in the audience vote.

Images of the snow sculptures were provided to us by the Swiss Jungfrauzeitung at www.jungfrauzeitung.ch/artikel/122956.

Many other snow festivals are not restricted by a theme, and this is where the most interesting and craziest works of art are created:

For example, there is now “Gangnam Style” a very large snow artwork of pop star Psy, who became famous

The Psy snowman was created at the Taebaeksan Snow Festival in South Korea, which attracts many snow artists every year from late January to early February. If you'd like to attend next year, you can find more information at https://discoveringkorea.com/090203/taebaeksan-snow-festival-korea.

The sensational snow art can be viewed in the Swiss winter sports paradise of Pontresina until March 1, 2013; this year's motto of the "International Snow Art Competition" was "Transitional Beauties".

The open-air exhibition “Kunstwege/Vias d'art” features truly impressive abstract snow sculptures that transcend boundaries and are quite literally “temporary,” and which are effectively illuminated in the evening. Information and images www.kunstwege-pontresina.ch:

If you making snow sculptures and the snow simply isn't falling here, you could travel to the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan, perhaps the snow festival with the most diverse snow artworks, which are wonderfully illuminated in colorful ways.

The Sapporo Snow Festival is taking place for the 64th time this year, from February 5th to March 11th, 2013. All information can be found on the website www.snowfes.com (non-Japanese speakers should click on the only thing they can read on the page, the "English" button).

You can't just hop on a plane to Japan? That's a shame, then you're like most of us, and all that's left for you is to admire the artworks on the websites mentioned and plan for next year.

Which, by the way, doesn't have to be limited to just sightseeing: Why not plan your own snow festival for your street, school, village community, or similar?