Ice Theatre

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The Ice Theatre is an art project that initially started as something fun and exciting that Marc could do for his son. The idea was to build a spectacular theatre entirely of ice. Then they would watch L’homme au Violon» a spy movie projected on super 8 which was shot during the COLD war era nearly 22 years previous. The theatre was made of nearly 4 tonnes of ice and took 8 days to build — Marc got all the neighbourhood children involved.

To give context, Mile End, where this project took place, is known for its diversity and has all kinds of brightly coloured storefronts and an immense amount of character. This makes it an appealing place for artists to live.
Made of coloured blocks of ice, Ahr’s theatre immediately aroused great interest. It took over his entire front yard measuring about 3 metres square with room inside for eighteen people. It’s magical qualities were most evident in the evening when the light of the film projector emphasized it’s translucent quality. Screenings were programmed on weekends from January to March when Montreal’s temperatures can drop to -40C — what was intended to last for 2 nights ended up lasting for 3 months when the ice finally started melting.

As word spread Marc had 5 TV channels and various radio stations asking him for interviews on his ice creation.