This massive piece of street art that's appeared in Tokyo and Paris is now in Saskatoon

Saskatoon is joining cities across the globe by hosting a unique art installation and the very large work of art will be bouncing from neighbourhood to neighbourhood this week.

It’s called the Red Ball Project and it rolled into Saskatoon on the weekend.

“It’s been all over the world: Chicago, Vienna Bethlehem, Paris,” said Kevin Kitchen, manager of community development with the City of Saskatoon.

The city started to get the ball rolling in 2018, but he said the pandemic put it on hold.

Apparently it was worth the wait, judging from the kids who were enjoying it Monday in front of Victoria School.

The business improvement districts in Saskatoon joined together to organize the unique exhibit, which will be showcased in their areas during the weeklong show.

The ball was met with a bit of surprise by some who had to find an alternate route Sunday when the ball was wedged in the bridge, blocking the path at River Landing.

“We had some people who were moving around the piece and people who had never been at that site in the same way before,” Red Ball Project artist Kurt Perschke told CTV News.

The material used to make the ball is the same as that of a zodiac boat, according to the artist, but the medium is actually the surroundings, changing with every location.

“Part of what the project does is explore the city and plays with audience of the sites so what the piece is about what’s going to happen in Saskatoon. What we’re going to change the experience as we move through the different sites and explore the architecture of Saskatoon,” Perschke says.

The choice to bring the project to Saskatoon stemmed from a need to have an interactive art piece.

“A lot of time with art you are told not to touch the art. There’s a feeling you can’t interact with it. It’s not very tactile,” Kitchen said.

At its second location in the city, the Little Stone Stage on Broadway Avenue, it’s wedged into the gazebo structure. But depending on where it is located, it will be situated a little bit differently. Sometimes it’s wedged, or sometimes it’s suspended above a building or architectural element.

“The sites were selected in advance in the research period like five years ago,” according to the artist.

In that time, they had to plan how to transport the ball, which isn’t an easy feat. When deflated, it fits into a box about as big as a fridge, Perschke said.

It will be in Saskatoon at various locations through to Canada Day and then it’s off to Liverpool, England in mid-July.