Public art on the river ice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/01/2010 (5963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just when you thought it was time to give up on the outdoors and retreat to the basement TV room, along comes a new idea that restores faith in the hope that a Winnipeg winter can be a beautiful thing.

Well, maybe not all the time. Forty below, we agree, is not fit for man or beast, but let’s not exaggerate the prevalence of such hostile weather. Winnipeg winters are usually friendly enough to provide ample opportunity for fun, frolic and adventure.

The innovative managers of The Forks are now adding a new dimension to all that whiteness. The frozen Assiniboine River will be the platform for five warm-up huts that are also unique works of public art.

The idea is so different that it has immediately garnered notice around the world. Paul Jordan, chief operating officer at The Forks, said he received calls from newspapers and architectural journals in Italy and Ireland wanting to publish the images of the five river huts. The shacks-as-art have also generated some national interest in a country that French philosopher Voltaire once dismissed as "a few acres of snow."

Skaters and pedestrians always had access to warm-up huts on the river, but they were utilitarian works of basic carpentry. The new warming huts, however, are objets d’art. One of them was fathered by architectural impresario Antoine Predock, who also designed the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Predock, of New Mexico, might be said to be out of his element (snow versus sand), but he has eagerly embraced Winnipeg’s climate since winning the competition for the human rights museum several years ago. He is said to be fascinated with ice, which incidentally is one of the themes in his ethereal museum.

The Art and Architecture Exposition on Ice could not have been named more appropriately. Each exhibit/shack is not merely a piece of pure art, but also a functional enclosure of space intended for use by humans. It’s an approach to building that many Winnipeggers believe is lacking in the city, but Winnipeg is not Las Vegas (or Dubai), and this is a subject for another story.

The Forks plans to turn this year’s success into an annual competition that would attract the interest of architects and artists from around the world. The new huts will add colour and fun to Winnipeg winters, and hopefully it will get some fuddy-duddies off the couch and onto the ice and the fluffy white stuff.