Fairytale latitudes, temperatures bordering on the intolerable and the magic of the long Northern European winter provide the backdrop to The Snow Show, an event as unusual as it is unique that brings 30 or so international artists and architects to Finland. The aim is to create a structure that is at least 80 per cent snow and ice.

What are the rules of the game? To work in pairs (artist and designer), not to exceed a surface area of 80 square metres and a height of 8 metres and to try to exploit what is offered by the natural surrounding. Videos, sounds, lights and traditional building materials are all allowed. It has taken the curators, New York gallery owner Lance Fung and the director of the Rovaniemi Art Museum, Hilkka Liikkanen, four years to bring together the exceptional group of participants, and a glance at the list explains why.

The architects include Anamorphosis, Tadao Ando, Diller+Scofidio, Hollmén-Reuter-Sandman, Future Systems, Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki, LOT-EK, Morphosis, Enrique Norten, Studio Granda, Williams & Tsien, Lebbeus Woods, Juhani Pallasmaa and Ocean North. The artists include Carsten Höller, Kiki Smith, Yoko Ono and Anish Kapoor. The ice architecture will remain on display in the towns of Kemi and Rovaniemi, in Finnish Lapland, through the end of March – in other words, until the spring thaw. E.S.

Until 31.3.2004
The Snow Show
Kemi e Rovaniemi, Finland
https://www.thesnowshow.net