Last days of Calgary's Eau Claire Market chronicled in new multimedia exhibit

CBC

25-05-2025

Calgary's Eau Claire Market may be gone, but the mall's legacy lives on.
A mixed bag of emotions and experiences led a group of local artists to preserve their memories of the mall through their "see you there // meet me here: echoes of eau claire" multimedia exhibit.
Unveiled this month at The New Gallery, the exhibit commemorates the Eau Claire one year after its closure last May.
"I kind of viewed it as a memorial service for a dead mall," curator and artist Jessica Szeto told the Calgary Eyeopener. "So part of grieving, I think, is coming together to tell stories."
WATCH | Curator reflects on end of Eau Claire era:
The last days of the Eau Claire Market
2 days ago
Duration 4:37
A new multimedia exhibit in Calgary chronicles the final weeks of the Eau Claire Market in downtown Calgary. Artist and curator Jessica Szeto joins us in studio.
The exhibit has everything from original photography, sounds and videos to seats from the Eau Claire's Cineplex theatre, all meant to take people back to the now-demolished mall.
"How do we remember something that was never fully realized? How do we collectively mourn an imperfect thing?"
Those are among the questions put forward by the exhibit, which includes interactive spaces for visitors to document their own Eau Claire experiences.
"Having that mall was just such an important part of, I think, my identity as a Calgarian," she said. "I think that was like an important part of our history."
Szeto was there to witness the Eau Claire Market's opening in 1993, when music, magicians, a fishmonger and more enamoured many who visited the mall in its heyday, and its closure over three decades later in 2024.
"It was just packed in the early days," said Szeto, who frequented the mall throughout her youth. "It was a vibrant place with very quirky and interesting vendors, and music and toy stores. You know, it's just hard to imagine even how different it was."
Stephen Chan, a film photographer and one of the artists behind the exhibit, used photography to document his feelings about the mall's closure.
"I really wanted to capture as many elements of its weird design and layout, and the stores within it as I could before it was all gone," said Chan.
Through the work Chan has contributed to the exhibit, he hopes visitors will reflect on how their surroundings have changed over time.
The exhibit is "a way for people to explore their memories of the place, and contribute themselves what they remember and how they want to preserve the legacy of this weird, failed mall," he said.
"It just kind of got stagnant and depressed and isolated from the rest of the city," said Chan. "Even though the rest of Calgary was going through so many changes in the past 20 to 30 years, the mall was just kind of always just there and left to rot."
Chan is currently working with Calgary Arts Development to create his own Eau Claire Market project, a photo book called Eau Claire Nowhere, which is set to release later this year.
"When they said it was going to be torn down for the Green Line, it kind of spurred a rush of people to go down there and just kind of preserve their last memories of the place," said Chan.
Uncertainty always loomed over the mall's future, and even after its demolition earlier this year, uncertainty lingers on. The feelings associated with that are a central part of the exhibit, said Szeko.
"I feel horribly about it," she said of the mall being demolished to make way for the Green Line. "It's not just a building ... we tore it down for kind of another uncertain project, so I think it feels bad [and] wasteful."
The public can visit "see you there // meet me here: echoes of eau claire" at The New Gallery now until June 12, with a reception scheduled for May 31 from 7 to 9 p.m.