“Thank you so much for calling. Please wait a moment while we connect the Bow River to you.”
It’s the first thing you’ll hear when you dial the toll-free number 1-855-BOW-LSTN (1-855-269-5786). After that, the Bow River’s “rushing, gurgling and babbling voice” is heard, says Calgary Arts Development.
The Homestretch8:21Calling the Bow River
A newly relaunched art project in Calgary allows Calgarians to pick up the phone and “call” the Bow River. Patti Pon with Calgary Arts Development joins us to discuss the project.
Known as Reconnecting to the Bow, this public art project was created by Broken City Lab, an interdisciplinary artist collective. From Aug. 12 to the end of December, anyone can call Calgary’s most famous water body.
Justin Langlois, an artist and member of Broken City Lab, says the creation process involved listening to the river and finding ways to present it back to the community.
“The Bow River is such a core part of what we know today to be Calgary, and certainly the traditional territories that folks have lived on and been a part of … since time immemorial,” said Langlois.
“It’s really such a big part of the landscape, of the ecosystems of so many people’s ways of life.”
This artwork is a response to a 2014 artwork known as Varying Proximities — part of the City of Calgary’s Watershed+ public art program — from the same artist collective.
Langlois is hopeful this iteration of the project will help people understand rivers as a dynamic, “living part of the world around us,” as opposed to a static entity.
The artist describes the Bow as a “focal point” for how people experience the city.
Patti Pon, president and CEO of Calgary Arts Development, told CBC Radio’s The Homestretch that the Bow River has always been an integral part of Calgary and the land that existed long before the city.
“Every one of us has a story about the Bow River, every single one of us,” said Pon.
“The Bow gets to share its message with all of us when you call.”
Calgary’s ‘complex’ relationship with water
What’s more, the artwork likely feels current for most people who live and play in Calgary water.
With drought, flooding and water supply woes filling the minds of many Calgarians, water in the city has been under the spotlight all summer.
Pon says that even though this project has been in the works since well before the current water supply issues in Calgary — following the June 5 rupture of the city’s most critical water main — it’s more relevant now than ever.
“If ever there was a time where Calgarians could be invited to really think about the really complex and complicated relationship that we have with water here in Calgary, it’s now.”
According to an artist statement from Broken City Lab’s Hiba Abdallah, Joshua Babcock and Langlois, the recordings of the river will change throughout the project, so callers can expect to hear different sounds at different times.
“What we wanted to do this time around was prepare a number of recordings so that, as people call over the duration of the project, they would hear some evolutions of the sound and kind of get to experience different parts of the Bow River, different expressions of it,” Langlois told CBC News.
“What we’re hoping comes out of that is an interest from folks who want to call in again and maybe hear a different voice from the Bow.”
The artist says the group mapped out 10 or so locations along the river where it was disrupted or coming into contact with the landscape around it. Then, working with a recording specialist, the sounds of the water’s flow were captured.
Throughout the course of this public art project, Calgarians can expect to see various visual artworks displayed across the city on posters, billboards, transit station screens and even social media platforms that invite people to call the Bow and listen to all of the different sounds its water produces.