10.03.2006

Description 25 - Nuit Blanche

The city stays open all night for the sake of contemporary art, and lots of people actually show up! Including me! Enjoy music made with water, reading pieces of paper tied to tree branches, and learning how to walk the right way through fog. And remember: positive energy!

Click here to subscribe and accept the microclimate.
Click here to download directly for a more immediate expression.

Associated links:
Official Nuit Blanche Toronto site
Torontoist Does Nuit Blanche, Has Stories, Is Sleepy.
Spacing on Philosopher's Walk
An explanation of Taddle Creek
University of Toronto Faculty of Music
Bloor-Yorkville @ toronto.com
That carrot episode of "Good Eats"

The featured exhibits were: Carl Beam: The Whale of Our Being, Fog in Toronto #71624, Son(ic)ambulism, Hold That Thought, I Am Curious - Yorkville, Leif Ostlund and Raphael Montpetit @ Hollander York Gallery and One Garden One Night One Wish.

It's a long episode, but man, I cut a lot of stuff out. Sorry there are things I made reference to that ended up on the virtual cutting-room floor. After my first bit, I walked down bpnichol lane, where there was supposed to be something going on on the way to Sussex, but I must have been too late for it. In a nook of Yorkville, huge, inflated capsules were floating for Pharma©opia by Toronto art legends of the '80's General Idea. At the Royal Ontario Museum, there was some great work imported from the Nuit Blanche in Havana, Cuba - particularly the work of Carlos Garaicoa. Also, outside of the ROM in the contruction site for the Crystal, an interesting projection was being shown. And I didn't end up dragging my ass across the street to the newly renovated Gardiner Museum.

Again, that was just part of Zone A! There were two other zones with swimming and 10-year-olds DJ'ing and dramatic pup tents and cops dancing and whatever the hell. Once folks finally wiped the sleep from their eyes, it was determined about 450,000 people experienced this thing. That's pretty damn cool. But y'know, Montreal is having one of these deals next spring - they're supposed to be the artsy ones. That event just may have enough power to fortify all the overpasses in Laval. But for now, the art community of Toronto and the plain old shmucks like me can be kinda proud of what went down Saturday night.

No comments: