International sculptors get creative with 'aurora', 'shaman' designs at China ice festival
World
The contests took place in Harbin, in China's Heilongjiang province, known for its ice festival
HARBIN (Reuters) – Ice and snow sculptors from around the world chipped away at their creations in one of China’s coldest cities to compete in the annual international ice and sculpting competitions, bringing spectacular design concepts including an aurora that occurs in earth’s northern hemisphere known as the Northern Lights.
The contests took place in Harbin, in China's Heilongjiang province, known for its ice festival which draws thousands of visitors annually. Winter temperatures in Harbin can dip to as low as -35 degrees Celsius (-31 degrees Fahrenheit).
Participating in the ice sculpting contest that began on January 2 and takes place over a two-day period, Nikolai Petrov, who hails from Yakutsk city in Russia, said his design is a “shaman” practitioner, inspired by his “shamanism, tengrism” faith.
“The drum is the sun (in fact). And when the shaman (practitioner) comes out, it shows its totems and communicates with the cosmos,” he said.
French sculptor, Bertin Pauline, participating in the snow sculpting competition that began on Monday, said her team's design was inspired by the ‘Aurora Borealis’ phenomenon.
Carlos Sebastian Estrella Rivas, from Ecuador, said the snow sculpting race over the next three days is an opportunity to work with his family building the “nature”-inspired “Envolventes” model on a larger-than-life snow structure.
Ten countries comprising of 20 or more so teams are taking part in the snow spectacle.
The competitions are part of the annual Ice and Snow Festival, themed "Shared Dreams of Ice and Snow, United Hearts in Asia," incorporates elements from the 9th Asian Winter Games, which will be held in Harbin from February 7 to February 14.
