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Art & Books

Nuit Blanche 2011

I’ve written about Nuit Blanche for five years, but this was the first year I stayed out almost the whole night.

(I was out by 7 pm and packed it in when serious rain started to fall around 5 am.) My 1-to-3:30-am shift talking to people in the Speed Art Criticism truck across from the Gladstone broke up my night, allowing me to witness both the prime-time crush on Yonge and the hardcore all-nighters at 4:30 am in the financial district.

People came out despite a sudden drop in temperatures (hey, Montrealers do Nuit Blanche in February!), and car-free pedestrian streets in the core seemed navigable compared to early iterations of the Nuit. Maybe it’s the increase in outdoor programming or the variety of indoor venues for smaller projects, but I didn’t see the massive, around-the-block lineups familiar from previous events. Many installations were walk-right-in, though there were still small lineups downtown into the wee hours.

Large spectacles in places like Nathan Phillips Square rely on club-style jumpy laser light shows. Those who flew on the bird-wings probably enjoyed it, but maybe we’ve yet to see anything really original and effective in this large venue.

The curators wisely avoided international big names like Jeff Koons and Santiago Sierra, who generally send something kinda tired that’s been touring around for a while. Established and emerging Canadians from BC, Quebec and Ontario were well represented, as well as local artists.

No one can see everything, and there are many things I wished I’d seen but couldn’t get to. Here are some highlights of my night:

I don’t think I’m the only one who had the song from that NFB log-roller cartoon playing in my head at Richard Purdy’s charming wade-in log-jam pond in the MaRS Centre.

Tibi Tibi Neuspiel and Geoffrey Pugen’s performance impersonating McEnroe and Borg’s Tie-Break tennis match, complete with bleachers and plummy-voiced British narrator, had people riveted into the early hours.

The Drake installed the be-all-and-end-all of balloon sculptures on Queen West, a giant clown woven of multiple balloons whoever did this puts Jeff Koons to shame. Inside John Notten’s Intensity, people literally became talking heads, sharing info about the night inside little head-sized tents maybe tents do build community.

I saw the Sisyphuses pushing a rock down Yonge for Germaine Koh why couldn’t we lend a hand? Jeremy Jansen and Niall McClelland’s big walls of caution tape and mandala of wooden police Barricades was a striking and event-appropriate reuse of crowd-control materials.

As someone who often visits galleries in quiet, low-traffic hours – and has come to appreciate this more contemplative way of viewing art – I find Nuit Blanche a bit of an ADD-inducing experience.

So I was looking forward to Isabelle Hayeur’s Ascension as a meditative end to the night when I ducked into Metropolitan United Church to get out of the rain. Maybe it was sleep deprivation, but Hayeur’s video of an endless church nave shook me up, more nightmare than peaceful dream, and a richer artwork for it.

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