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The Olympic Park asks: What do you build from a fallen roof?

For the Games’ 50th anniversary, two new public artworks will rise from the ruins of Montreal’s most controversial structure.

J.P. Karwacki

J.P. Karwacki

July 30, 2025- Read time: 2 min
The Olympic Park asks: What do you build from a fallen roof?Photograph: Yves Tremblay

Fifty years after Montreal lit the Olympic flame, the legacy of 1976 is getting a second life—this time in rust, fibre, and concrete dust.

The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) and the Olympic Park have launched an open call for two new public artworks, to be unveiled in 2026 as part of the Games’ 50th anniversary. The twist is that artists must construct their pieces using at least 60% material from the dismantled roof of the Olympic Stadium.

It’s a poetic constraint that asks how can something inspiring be made from something that never quite worked: The stadium roof has been a symbol of Montreal’s overreach and underdelivery for decades—leaking, collapsing, then eventually coming down altogether. And yet here we are, being asked to turn that broken promise into something meaningful.

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