It may be a dead mall with almost no tenants left inside — the official closing is apparently this weekend — but thanks to a nonprofit dedicated to the revitalization of downtown, one side of the former Westfield mall is getting a massive photographic mural.

Yes, the final tenants are packing up and shipping out as of Sunday or Monday, according to a report earlier this week, but the SF Centre mall won't just feature a wall of darkened windows, at least on the Mission Street side.

The Downtown Development Corporation (DDC), a nonprofit created late last year seemingly at the behest of Mayor Daniel Lurie (though he's not directly involved) and devoted to advancing his vision for revitalizing San Francisco's downtown through public-private partnerships, has partnered here with the Institute for Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICA) and the Yerba Buena Partnership to bring a large mural from Indigenous artist Jeffrey Gibson to the glass-walled façade of the mall facing Mission Street.

The mural features still images taken from Gibson's video piece This Burning World, which debuted at the ICA's former Dogpatch location in 2022.

"He’s essentially taken these extraordinary video stills and knitted them together into this city block-long tapestry," says Alison Gass, founding director and chief curator of the ICA, in a statement to SFGate.

Gass adds, "What’s extraordinarily powerful about [Gibson's] practice is that he mixes modernist abstraction language with Indigenous patterning. With this body of work, this project in particular, he focused so deeply on the power of nature, on representing the beauty of our Earth."

The haunting original piece, which can be seen here, was installed on two walls facing each other in ICA's former galleries, in a similarly mural-like fashion.

This intallation will certainly liven up a fairly dismal stretch of Mission Street which faces a parking garage on the opposite side, and which will serve as a primary walkway for tourists coming into town for the Super Bowl in two weeks.

A block away, Yerba Buena Gardens will be playing host to the official Fan Zone for Super Bowl Weekend, as part of the Bay Area Host Committee's BAHC Live! programming. Sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, the area will feature live performances, food vendors, "cutting-edge technology" through which to experience the lead-up to the Super Bowl.

The DDC, with a mission to "create cleaner and safer streets, attract new businesses and employers, and activate public spaces," is funded in part by donations from Ripple founder Chris Larsen, Laurene Powell Jobs's Emerson Collective, the Dolby Family, as well as Salesforce and Google — though the largest donor to the organization, who may or may not be Daniel Lurie or his mom, has remained anonymous. The nonprofit was just announced in early December, and after this art installation, they are promising "two additional site-specific pieces that will activate key corridors with vibrant, contemporary interventions."

Regarding the funding of the mural, the DDC's CEO Shola Olatoye told SFGate, "Public art changes how people experience a street. That’s why DDC is supporting Jeffrey Gibson’s work in the heart of the city — to create small moments that attract people and give them a reason to spend time here."

Just below this new mural and to the left is Executive Order, the bar and lounge that appears to want to be the final tenant in the building. SFist was not able to get in touch with owner John Eric Sanchez, but the bar has not announced any closure on its Instagram, and they are advertising an 80s dance party on January 31st in their Stories. Sanchez previously told the Chronicle that he was going to try to stick it out as long as possible in the space, despite being served with a lease termination last month.

Previously: BART Entrance Sealed Off at SF Centre as Official Closing Date for Mall Arrives This Week