Calgary East Village – Promenade

April 29, 2012
By Cody Battershill

East Village in Calgary – Promenade by Julian Opie

East Village just received its first piece of permanent art named Promenade, a 24 foot tall four sided LED tower that will play a part in the overall ambiance of the area. Created by famous artist Julian Opie, the tower displays some distinctive signatures of the internationally acclaimed artist that can be seen for blocks from its standing point on the corner of 4th St SE and 5th Ave SE. Promenade is a permanent marker of the redeveloped downtown urban community, where people will see it from afar and know what Calgary community they are looking at.

Julian Opie says his art work is symbolic of the new community being created, expressing movement of all types in East Village: the flow of the Bow River, of people and traffic. Every subject found on the sides of Promenade are programmed to traverse from one panel face to another on time given intervals, changing the art work on a constant basis. This movement is representative of urban cities where people endlessly pass each other by, oblivious to each other.

Promenade is the first time Opie’s figures traverse around corners, is only the second piece of work he has done in Canada and is the larger of the two. A design board consisting of seven members decided on Opie’s work for the job.

EV Is In the Works.....

Keep your eyes peeled for more new and exciting permanently fixed art installations in downtown Calgary’s East Village. The neighbourhood is a 55 acre community in downtown Calgary between the historical founding site of Calgary and the business district. A blend master planned commercial, retail and residential living units with elaborate architecture are part of the reason why EV will be a desirable, popular downtown community, if not already.

For more on Calgary’s East Village, check out 10 Cool Facts for East Village and two joint development partners working with the City of Calgary to bring EV to life!