In the first week of February, the ARt on Snow transformed the valley of Gastein in Austria into a stronghold of artistic endeavours, combing snow and art like no other event has ever done before. And despite the fact we couldn’t be live on the grounds ourselves, we’re happy to at least share a little gallery of highlights with you!
We hope you like. And for all the curious ones among you, we’ve also published the official press release below.
With the opening of the central exhibition as well as with the creation and revelation of several artistic installations at the different villages of Gasteinertal, the Art on Snow had a blasting start on Saturday, 2nd February. The guests and Gastein inhabitants can expect a whole week under the banner of art with a diversified supporting program consisting of street art performances, snow sculptures, live painting and party.
The Art on Snow week already started on early Saturday morning with the revelation of two ice sculptures on the summit station Fulseck. The Salzburg local Alexander Neumayer has shaped the two unique artworks out of massive ice blocks already on the previous day.
Also at the summit stations of Goldbergbahn at Sportgastein as well as of Schlossalm at Bad Hofgastein art on the slopes caused amazement among the winter sports enthusiasts because at the summits the two snow-artist teams “SubZERO” and “Schneebild” started their projects of monumental snow sculptures that consist of snow that had been pressed into 2x2x2 metre big blocks.
At the forecourt of the Thermal bath in the centre of Bad Hofgastein a giant 3D artwork attracted the passerbys’ attention. When looked at from a defined position, an amazing optic illusion of a mountaintop that seems to loom out of the asphalt. The artwork with dimensions of 6×10 metres created by the artist Ella Mundt can still be admired until Friday provided that the weather conditions are good.
The central element of the Art on Snow nevertheless is the big exhibition in the art no nouveau rooms of the former Grand Hotel de L’ Europe at Bad Gastein, where eight international artists as well as the Wild Wood Gallery present contemporary art in a colourful mix. The exhibition runs until upcoming Friday and the opening hours are daily from 03.00 p.m. to 08.00 p.m. The entrance is free.
A veritable highlight on the first day of the Art on Snow was the Paint Club Markerbattle at the Silver Bullet, Bad Gastein. Twelve artists were facing each other here with the task to create a 1×1 metre big canvas at the elimination round, a snowboard in vertical as well as in horizontal format in the semi final and final respectively. The challenges were that the judges defined a different motto for each round, a limited amount of only four colour markers by MOLOTOW and a limited time of only 30 minutes per round. The artistic level was enormously high and accordingly the judges from the paint club had hard decisions to make. Finally the artist Lion won the battle with three sophisticated creations. Tom Lohner from Loslohbros became second and Brittney Bodner painted herself to the third place. Afterwards the crowd as well as the artists moved to the neighbouring Wührers club where everyone celebrated the electropunk sound by Rhytm Police at the Art on Party.
Besides the exhibition a variety of thrilling, amazing and interactive events will take place within the upcoming week. In different hotels throughout the valley professionally hosted painting workshops are offered to all art interested guests and Gastein inhabitants. From Tuesday to Thursday the “Big Picture” event will take place at three different locations. Three artists will create each three artworks live in front of the spectators. All three artworks by each artist will then be collected and together they shall form a giant piece of art. These artworks will be presented at the Finissage taking place on Friday from 04.00 p.m. to 09.00 p.m. Furthermore
At Angertal, at the bottom station Stubnerkogel at Bad Gastein as well as at the forecourt of the thermal bath Bad Hofgastein further snow sculptures will be created.
