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Laura GodfreyLaura Godfrey
Graduated with a BA from York University in 2008, where I worked as the Assistant Arts Editor at Excalibur, the university's community newspaper...

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It’s not every day that you walk through busy Nathan Phillips Square and find yourself face-to-face with a big, 15-foot inflatable red ball.

In fact, today’s the only day you can do just that, as the RedBall Project kicks off the 10-day, mostly-free Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity.

The big, red ball weighs 250 pounds and takes about an hour to go from a deflated stack of PVC fabric to a 15-foot interactive piece of public art. This project, created by artist Kurt Perschke, has travelled through cities such as Barcelona, Sydney and Chicago - Perschke’s native town - and has been tucked, wedged and hung in some unexpected places.

As part of the Luminato Festival, it began its journey through Toronto today at 11 a.m., squished underneath the second-floor walkway in the middle of Nathan Phillips Square. The RedBall will be moved to a different location nearly every day of the festival, including Old City Hall, Ryerson University’s Podium Building and an alleyway on Queen Street West. The last location will be the Harbourfront Centre on Sunday, June 14.

Hundreds of passers-by stopped to look, touch and have their pictures taken with the mysterious new object. Ed Dowell and Linda McLean, two Toronto tennis players, made a point of visiting the RedBall on the way to their match at the Sir Winston Churchill Park Tennis Club. They plan on visiting the ball as it’s moved throughout the city.

“It makes [the Square] more interactive,” said Dowell, as he took a picture of McLean posing with her tennis racket in front of the ball.

Artist Kurt Perschke visited Toronto this past winter and spent some time walking up and down the streets to find the ideal location for his art installation.

“The sites are always a mixture of the right physical location, the history of the city and the traffic flow,” he said.

“For instance, [Nathan Phillips Square] is a great downtown opening location. It has really good sun, and a mix of tourists and people commuting to work.”

Perschke said the public’s reaction to the ball is different from city to city. In Sydney, people’s reactions were very spontaneous and physical, while in Barcelona, he said the project was much more intellectualized. He’s waiting to see what the people of Toronto will think of his project.

“The project isn’t actually about the ball, it’s about the act of imagination,” he said.

“It’s just started in Toronto, and you never know how it’s going to go in a city. This is just the beginning. The piece itself is kind of neutral. It’s all about what people bring to it.”

Perschke will be at the Hard Rock Cafe (279 Yonge St.) tomorrow at 1 p.m. along with members of the Toronto collective OpenCity Projects for a discussion on how art can engage with public space. A documentary on the RedBall Project, created by Tony Gaddis, will also be shown at the National Film Board Mediatheque (150 John St.) at 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 7.