Welcome to our 9th Annual Snøskulptur Hovden 2011
I am proud to present an exhibition of 10 works of art, created at Hovden in January of 2011.
The Artistic Commite have selected 10 proposals of what we consider to be the finest sculptors in snow and ice.
We are building an annual snow sculpture exhibition, of high artistic standard, and aim to become the leading resource centre for snow and ice sculpture of this category in Northern Europe. For the last five years we have worked to educate more artists in the field of Snow and Ice.
Each year we strive to become better and to give our artists and viewers a deeper understanding of this expression of the arts. Snow and Ice is a media that all people of the Northerh hemisphere is familiar with and love. It makes arts easily accessible to people and easier to interprete and appreciate.
The first year I was Project Mangager for Snøskulptur Hovden in 2007 I invited Mark Szulgit to participate. His reputation was outstanding and his background intriguing, being educated as a desert architect in Arizona, USA, followed by a career as Art Directror of the Icehotel i Jukkasjervi, Sweden. In 2009 he said the following about our Snøskulptur Hovden:
“Hovden snow and ice symposium is a contemporary art happening. The symposium continues to push the limits of "solid water" as a legitimate artistic material in the fields of art, architecture, and design. Among "solid water" events in the world, presently and historically, this event has managed to maintain purity of thought, form, and expression directly from the artists- with minimal influence from commerce, branding, or contrived "crowd pleaser" exhibition pieces. This success is primarily due to the fact that the event is managed by contemporary artists with a clear vision…..
Hovden provides an invaluable ideal expressive environment which manifests the possibilities of solid-water as an legitimate artistic material into an unwritten future.” Mark Szulgit, October 2009, California, USA.
Snøskulptur Hovden is a project organized by Bykle Kommune, Destinasjon Hovden AS and myself as Project Manager. Each year we search for new exciting sculptors while we take care of those who has contributed in earlier years.
This year we are happy to present following new artists at Hovden;
Natalia Chistyakova from Russia, Eric Mutel, France, now living in Finland and Franck Caulier, France,
From earlier years Franziska Agrawal; Germany, now living in Peru, Elisabeth Kristiansen, Norway, Erik Pirolt, Norway and Cathinka Mæhlum, Norway return with new exciting sculptures that stretches our imagination of the art of Snow and Ice sculptures.
Every year we invite 2-3 artist for a special reason. This year we have invited Laila Kolstyak, Norway, Mark Szulgit, USA og Lukas Arons , Netherlands, now living in Sweden. Our desire is to become better at what we know and it will be exciting to see what these three artists have in mind. It is my hope that we each year can take a step further and present an exhibition of great art to the public and artists that join us at Hovden. Snøskulptur Hovden would not happen without the effort and dedication of a lot of great people at Hovden like Magne Bakken, Steinar Haugen, Geir Bakken and Kjetil Midtgarden from Teknisk Drift og Eigedom Bykle Kommune, Astri Rysstad, Bykle Kommune, Kirsten Leira at Destinasjon Hovden AS and all the supportive people from the local community, especially those that help us stamp the cubes and the always enthusiastic crew at Monter Hovden. Thank you STIHL for supporting us with great working saws and safety equipment.
A special thanks to all the artists contributing and our two assistants Kjell Molvik and Vidar Grønnerud that makes it all come true….
All the best,
Ole Morten Rokvam
Project Manager Snøskulptur Hovden
Risør 5th of January 2011
