Cool Hunting

The athletes are leaving Torino now that the Winter Olympics have come to a close, but left behind among the empty stadiums and the debris from the million visitors is a series of conceptual art exhibits fashioned on a staggering scale.

The simply-titled Snow Show began in 2003; it is no ordinary art exhibit, however. A collaboration between visionary artists and architects, ice and snow are the principal medium of these exhibits constructed on a grand scale.

For those of us who didn't make it to northern Italy this year, at least there's a deftly constructed website that gives at least some flavor of the nineteen structures that stand proudly, waiting to melt.

And melt they will. Ice and snow beholden to the elements, the structures that began as sketches and have been realized as full buildings are entirely at the mercy of the elements. The artists will capture the melting process as the springtime thaw sets in, so while the Winter Olympics has come to pass, these works will continue to on until they dissolve into slush.

See the pictured labyrinth under construction after the jump.