Concordia business student, Michael Lecchino shares his immersive experience
Slip off your sneakers. A host at MEM asks your shoe size, then heads off to gather a few pairs for you to choose from. You lace up, put on headphones, and step into the hallway. A voice — the owner of those shoes — begins to tell you their story. Ten minutes later, you come back a little quieter, a little changed, and very ready to try another pair.
What, where, when, and why now
A Mile in My Shoes is a joyful, simple exhibition now at MEM – Centre des mémoires Montréalaises: you walk while listening to first-person audio portraits. And yes, you do it wearing the storyteller’s actual shoes. MEM’s edition gathers 30 freshly recorded, all-Montreal stories, and it’s free to visit through September 21, 2025 at 1210 St Laurent Blvd in the Quartier des spectacles. If it’s been on your list, this is your nudge.
How it works (and why it works)
The space looks like a shoe shop: shelves, boxes, a counter. Staff fit you with a pair, hand you a headset, and send you for a short stroll as the owner of those shoes shares a formative chapter. The magic is in the choreography of body and voice: walking makes listening feel active, and the intimacy of a single voice in your ear turns strangers into neighbours. Stories run about ten minutes, so three or four pairs make a perfect visit.
Experience Montreal through 30 pairs of feet
Montreal loves a mosaic metaphor, but this show makes it literal. The shoes are scuffed, broken-in, particular. The kind of detail that primes you to notice the texture of a life before the audio even starts. Across the project’s worldwide collections, you’ll meet everyone from a neurosurgeon to a refugee. Here, the Montreal voices map the city’s mix: newcomers and old-timers, artists and essential workers. People who have loved, lost, and kept going. It’s empathy at ground level.
Who dreamed it up
A Mile in My Shoes is the flagship project of Empathy Museum, an itinerant arts outfit created in London by philosopher Roman Krznaric and led by artist-curator Clare Patey. Since launching in 2015, the project has grown into a roaming archive of 350-plus stories in nine languages from 14 countries, with new shoes and stories gathered in every city it visits. Think of it as a world built one walk at a time.
A little origin story
The very first version opened on the Thames during London’s Totally Thames festival in September 2015, where visitors stepped into everything from roller-derby skates to drag-queen stilettos. That blend of everyday tenderness and theatrical surprise has been the show’s calling card ever since.
What’s special about the MEM edition
This is Montreal telling Montreal. The museum produced the local version in collaboration with Empathy Museum. On our side, the audio was directed and produced by Vali Fugulin, with sound design/mix by Benoît Dame and Jérémie Jones/Exarono. It’s a credit roll that doubles as a love letter to the city’s creative ecosystem. It also honours the dozens of Montrealers who lent their shoes and their voices.
The feeling of being there
You notice the way the shoes move, the rhythm of the storyteller’s breath, the moment when the museum’s quiet settles into steps and a voice. Then a scene blooms: a bar where everyone belongs or a stage where a singer carries her ancestors’ stories. Suddenly, you’re no longer in a museum. You’re mid-stride in someone else’s memory, seeing your city from their eye level. It’s fun, curious, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, and often surprisingly joyful. The format demystifies the “museum thing” as there are no vitrines, no shushing. Rather, it turns listening into an act of care. Critics have called it “the simplest and most perfect of one-to-one dramatic experiences,” and on the way back to the counter you’ll understand why.
Make a plan (and bring a friend)
Give yourself 40-60 minutes for three or four walks. Linger if one story pulls you toward another pair. Because admission to this exhibition is free, it’s easy to fit into a lunch break or an afternoon visit. MEM’s downtown address makes it transit-friendly and if you’re planning a school or community visit, the format is made for conversation afterward.
Why you’ll talk about it later
You’ll start by describing a specific story and end up talking about how it felt. Montreal is a city that loves to tell stories. A Mile in My Shoes quietly hands the mic to people you might never meet and makes you want to keep walking.
submitted by Michael Lecchino
Michael Lecchino is a writer, researcher, public servant, and volunteer. A quadrilingual Italian-Canadian, he studies marketing at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business. He serves as a university senator and is a 3M National Student Fellow. He is also president of the Conseil jeunesse de LaSalle. His interests include design, diplomacy, art accessibility, community-building, and the outdoors. You can find Michael on Linktree.
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