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Paris (CNN) Have you ever seen ice -- like really seen ice?

Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic-Danish artist who lassoed and transported tons of ice from Greenland to Paris for a new climate change-inspired exhibit, bets you haven't.

"The truth is the ice is amazing. It's so touching to look at," he told me, standing in front of 12 hunks of Greenland that glittered blue-white in front of the Pantheon in Paris. The ice blocks -- totaling nearly 100 tons, he told me -- are arranged in the shape of a clock. You can see streaks of air and tiny bubbles in the ice. Put your ear to it, as I did at Eliasson's suggestion, and you hear a faint crackling sound. "It's a little concert," he said. "It's a little ice concert."

The outdoor exhibit, called Paris Ice Watch , is meant to focus the world's attention on the increasingly ephemeral nature of these amazing ice hunks. Not too far away, in a Parisian suburb, officials from 195 countries are meeting at the U.N. COP21 climate change summit to try to figure out how to curb the most disastrous consequences of global warming.

Paris Ice Watch is a reminder that the ice is melting as they talk.

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