Nuit Blanche: Zone A

Step into Zone A – bordered by Spadina, Bloor, Jarvis and Queen – and look for 15 installations in The New World, curated by Gordon Hatt, that explore the sense of belonging and alienation. Expect mixed feelings – some of these works are playful, some truly troubling.

TOM BENDTSEN

(900 Bay at Wellesley)

Over 12,000 volumes of books stacked into an oval 4 metres thick and 4 metres tall make up Bendtsen’s installation Conversation #2. On the outside, the spines of the books are configured into a pixelated landscape. On the inside, viewers can explore a musty bibliophilic enclosure of spores, signifying the unconscious and regenerative aspects of text. Bendtsen’s work addresses the inner and outer dimensions of language, both literally and metaphorically, in this intriguing monumental sculpture.

FUJIWARA TAKAHIRO

(Eaton Centre, 220 Yonge, Albert Street entrance)

Translucency, plasticity and massive scale are all elements of Takahiro’s Into The Blue, a serene cone of giant blue donuts suspended in the middle of the Eaton Centre, entitled Into The Blue. Takahiro, who prefers organic and sensual shapes that carry a subtle erotic charge, reconfigures one of Canada’s largest consumer emporiums with something abstractly pleasing, beautiful and just a little bit dirty.

DANIEL OLSON

(Yonge-Dundas Square)

Nuit Blanchers intent on fleeting stardom will have a chance to shine in Olson’s performative installation Fifteen Seconds. Standing atop a platform and wielding a spotlight, he will select people in the crowd at random and give them 15 seconds in which to dance, sing, declaim or flee like convicts caught in the middle of a prison break. Experience the perverse paradox of celebrity, in person.

SÉBASTIEN GIGUÈRE, NICOLAS LAVERDIÈRE AND JASMIN BILODEAU

(Massey Hall, 178 Victoria, alley off Shuter)

The city turns inside out when Quebec City art pranksters BGL place a 40-metre-long drop ceiling, complete with fluorescent lighting, along the alley of St. Enoch’s square, for Domaine De L’Angle #2. Will pavement and pedestrians look just as drab and utilitarian as cubicles and co-workers under all of that generic office ceiling? Only experience will tell. Look and see if you can find the water cooler.