Benjamin Crotty & Nour Mobarak. Snow Mound, 2010

Snow Mound was a formless social installation and land sculpture made of snow. The concept was one wherein a large pile of snow would be laid in the center of Rauma acting as an imposing obstruction and developing into a malleable community vision. It was placed at Keskuspuisto / Central Park, where it took on a multiplicity of forms, shaped daily by the denizens who found the snow mound as a meeting point as hoped for. After three truckloads of snow were dropped within the snowy landscape, Raumans of all ages came together with shovels on February 13th to erect the mound. Subsequently throughout the artists' stay, groups of students would meet with them there and were given free reign to revise the form. Three tubes of different sizes acted as portholes and were placed throughout the mound, shifting viewers' perception of the Rauma landscape and the numerous unmerited piles of snow surrounding the area alike. The mound housed shifting features, containing turrets, steps, snow bricks, snow tunnels, and caves at different points during its lifespan. Finally, a video was made. The mound was the work of architect Andrew Heid, and artists Benjamin Crotty and Nour Mobarak.

Benjamin Crotty and Nour Mobarak also created an 8 episode narrative television series for Portland Cable Access Television while in Rauma, entitled Reine Ibi.

Participants: about 50 persons, Kari School special class 4/5, Rauma Freinetschool classes 2, 3, 4, and 6, as well as visual arts group of Raumanmeri 8th grade. Television Series main actors were from Helsinki and Rauma figure skating club members.

Partners: Vesi-Vasa Oy, Viherkäine Oy, and the city of Rauma.