Filmmaker Maddin crafts warming hut for river trail

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This article was published 16/11/2017 (2345 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Critically acclaimed filmmaker Guy Maddin has a love affair with Winnipeg winters, and he’s sharing it at The Forks skating trail in a warming hut called the Temple of Lost Things.

As this year’s invited guest for the 10th annual warming hut competition, Maddin’s installation depicts ice columns that support a mesh screen to project art and performance. It will be erected under the Norwood Bridge.

“I’m ludicrously honoured by the invitation to create a structure for this incredible annual event, In the international world of design, The Forks’ warming hut competition has made our city the world capital of winter. It took me two seconds to say ‘Yes,'” Maddin said in a statement Thursday to announce the return of the competition.

Warming Huts 2018 uses the ice at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers as a platform for unique warming huts on the Red River Mutual trail of ice and ski paths.

“We’ve been after Guy for a number of years, but this year really worked out with him so I can’t think of anybody who encapsulates that Winnipeg creativity as much as Guy can,” The Forks Renewal Corp. CEO Paul Jordan said.

Turns out Maddin has a love affair with the frozen season.

“Winter is by far my favourite season, and I’ve always been saddened when its brief history of frosty activities is melted into the dark, stupid puddles of spring,” Maddin said.

The Forks fielded a record number of submissions — nearly 180 — from local, national and international artists and architecture groups. It released the results Thursday.

“What really stands out is this recurring theme that Winnipeg is being thought of as an exotic place,” Jordan said.

“People are fascinated with this environment, which I’ve always thought as well. But as a Winnipegger, it’s hard to see it. When you’re dealing with Mexicans and Estonians and Israelis, as we have over the years, they all look at this frozen landscape as something unique and exotic.”

There are three winners this year:

— Golden Bison, designed by David Alberto Arroyo Tafolla of Morelia, Mexico, is a giant golden bison. Pixel-like in its visual presentation, the bison hut is intended to portray the north’s indomitable spirit and its power of survival and protection. The golden colour is a nod to the Golden Boy.

— Totem is from Estonia, and it resembles a pair of computer server towers. Designed by the firm Architecture Office b210 from Tallinn Estonia, the towers are intended to serve as reference points on the frozen rivers. They’re built to be climbed.

— The third winner is The Trunk, designed by Camille Bianchi and Ryder Thalheimer of Vancouver. This is a man-made tree trunk, big enough to step inside and look up through the hollow to the sky.

For the eighth year, the University of Manitoba’s faculty of architecture continued to share it’s students’ talents. The event serves as an outdoor classroom, The Forks said.

Construction is expected to start in early January. Several favourites from earlier years will also be reassembled.

The mid-winter outdoor culinary experience RAW:almond will make a return engagement this year.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca