An entire Calgary city block has been transformed into a massive work of art before it is slated for demolition later this year.
Wreck City, located in the community of Sunnyside, is a collaborative project taken on by over 100 local curators, artists, musicians and performers, who have spent past weeks transforming nine homes and three garages on the block into creative masterpieces.
The houses, located between 621 and 823 5th Ave. NW, will be torn down to make way for a 115-unit residential complex.
“The community there is so tight-knit — yet eclectic — that we think that Wreck City is a great project to reflect the nature of the neighbourhood,” Mike Bucci, vice president of development with Bucci Developments, the company that plans to build on the site, told Metro Calgary.
“The credit should go to the artists. What they’re doing is an amazing thing.”
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Wreck City
And amazing it is. The entirely self-initiated and self-funded project is an epilogue of sorts for 809 Gallery, a garage gallery that is scheduled for demolition along with the rest of the block.
Wreck City was inspired, in part, by 2011's House Project, where a house in the same neighbourhood was infiltrated by artists, who created several art installations within the home.
"The House Project was so unique [and] made national news. I think this type of project is more along the lines of being a trendsetting thing, not just for the city, but more internationally as well,” Daniel J. Kirk, an artist involved first with House Project and now with Wreck City, told Beatroute magazine.