Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009: Thoughts, Memories and Impressions

It is now well over a month since Scotiabank Nuit Blanche: Toronto's free all-night contemporary art thing. While I had intended to post images and thoughts about my Nuit Blanche experience right away, this time has given me a chance to reflect on and think about my overall experience.

I have to admit that I have a somewhat love / hate / ambivalence feeling about events such as Nuit Blanche. I love that an event that is billed as a "contemporary art thing" can bring out hundreds of thousands of people on a cold fall night. It is amazing and exciting to see the streets come alive with people and activity virtually all night and it is wonderful to see people engage with public space and public art, even if it is just temporary.

Jeff Koons, Rabbit Balloon, 2007
Toronto Eaton Centre
Curated Project Zone A, Curator Gregory Elgstrand
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

What troubles me about these types of events is just what makes these events a success - all the people. How do you provide these hordes of people with a meaningful art experience? And is that even what these events are really about? Do the masses of people that filled the Toronto Eaton Centre to look up at Jeff Koons' Rabbit Balloon 2007 have any idea of who Jeff Koons is? Know anything about his bad boy image? The controversy surrounding his work in curatorial and art historical circles? Understand the evolution of Koons' use of balloons, over sized objects, shiny and mirrored surfaces, etc.? Or does any of this even matter? Is it enough for those viewing Koons' work to just get enjoyment from it as they delight in a big silver bunny floating overhead?

Jeff Koons, Rabbit Balloon, 2007
Toronto Eaton Centre
Curated Project Zone A, Curator Gregory Elgstrand
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

Koons himself has declared that there is no hidden meanings in his work. It is okay to just love his big silver bunny as it floats in the atrium of a downtown shopping mall. I was excited to see Koons' work included in Nuit Blanche, although I have to admit that I would have loved to see it placed somewhere where it did not have to compete with the Sears signage.

Paulette Phillips, AS COULD BE, 2009
Old Bank of Toronto Building
Curated Project Zone A, Curator Thom Sokoloski
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009 Toronto, ON

One of my favorite works was found in the Old Bank of Toronto Building on Yonge Street across from the Eaton Centre. One of the commissioned projects in Curator Thom Sokoloski's Zone A Exhibition, What Were We Before, Paulette Phillips' As Could Be, 2009 was a stunning immersive installation piece. Phillips projected a three-dimensional animation based on Vladimir Tatlin's 1917 proposed The Monument to the Third International into the fog-filled space. Tatlin's monument was never built, however, it continues to represent Utopian ideals of man working in harmony with technology. The visual effect of the animated projection onto the fog against the beaux-arts architecture was almost breathtaking. However, it was the sound piece that accompanied the work that made this work so compelling. Phillips created a musical / sound composition out of interviews with a number of Torontonians discussing what the idea of work meant to them. Watching the image of Tatlin's monument flicker in the fog against the marble columns of this old bank building, while listening to the individual voices discussing their diverse experiences with work was captivating, uplifting, disturbing and thought-provoking. For me, public art is successful when it is visually interesting and stimulating, but at the same time makes you think about your own small piece of the world and where that fits into society as a whole.

Cara Spooner, Robin Lasser, Adrienne Pao, Ice Queen: Glacial Retreat Dress Tent, 2009
Toronto Eaton Centre
Open Call Project Zone A, Curator Thom Sokoloski
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

One of the problems with one-night public art events is locating the art work so that it can be appreciated fully. Cara Spooner, Robin Lasser and Adrienne Pao's Ice Queen: Glacial Retreat Dress Tent, 2009 was a stunning performance piece. As we entered the crowded atrium of the Toronto Eaton Centre at the corner of Yonge and Dundas the Butoh-inspired dancer was just emerging from the centre of her 10-foot tall iceberg dress tent. Her movements were fluid, sensual and elegant.

Cara Spooner, Robin Lasser, Adrienne Pao, Ice Queen: Glacial Retreat Dress Tent, 2009
Toronto Eaton Centre
Open Call Project Zone A, Curator Thom Sokoloski
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

The simplicity of this work which explores the catastrophic effects of global warming and the exploration of desire, body and land from a female-centered perspective competed with the busy almost chaotic environment in which it was placed. Despite these distractions, Ice Queen appeared to delight and mesmerize an audience taking them to a place of icy, quiet, coolness and away from the hustle, bustle and crowds of Nuit Blanche.

Susie Burpee, Dead Philosophers' Limbo, 2009
Court House Rotunda
Curated Project Zone A, Curator Gregory Elgstrand
Scotiabank NuitBlanche 2009, Toronto, ON

Another dance performance piece that deserved more time and attention than Nuit Blanche allowed was Susie Burpee's Dead Philosophers' Limbo, 2009. The Dead Philosophers' Limbo is a twelve-hour dance performance using twenty-four dancers telling the tale of two hundred dead philosophers. Part theatre, part dance, part philosophy lesson this mesmerizing performance brings history and philosophy to life. Dead Philosophers' Limbo fits neatly into Zone A curator Gregory Elgstrand's vision to create a venue for the celebration of ideas. His curatorial concept was based on both historical and contemporary notions of the festival or circus. A place where ideas circulate, influence or flow into other ideas or generate new ones. He termed his zone The Circle with a Hole in the Middle.

Heather Nicol, Imminent Departure, 2009
Union Station Great Hall
Curated Project Zone B, Curator Jim Drobnick & Jennifer Fisher, DisplayCult
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

Curators Jim Drobnick and Jennifer Fisher of DisplayCult selected ten commissioned projects for their Zone B Exhibition: NIGHTSENSE. In their curatorial statement Drobnick and Fisher state that the exhibitions comprising "NIGHTSENSE invite a reconsideration of the sensory economy by intensifying the subtle but powerful links between bodies, aesthetic perception and shifts in capital."

Heather Nicol, Imminent Departure, 2009
Union Station Great Hall
Curated Project Zone B, Curator Jim Drobnick & Jennifer Fisher, DisplayCult
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

Heather Nicol's multi-media sound and light installation, Imminent Departure played with our sense of space and place. Using the historic architecture of Union Station as a back-drop, Nicol's evoked a sense of mystery, memory, history, loss and desire in her delicate patterned ceiling projections, fog and the soundtrack of voices, trains, and the bustle of a busy city station. I found myself immersed in the experience. This was a work that required one to stop, slow down, and experience the totality of the visual and sensory experience.

Santiago Sierra, NO, 2009
Temperance Street

Curated Project Zone B, Curator Jim Drobnick & Jennifer Fisher, DisplayCult
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

Internationally recognized artist Santiago Sierra is known for his performances and installations that address structures of power in art and society. NO, 2009 placed on a flatbed-semi on Temperance Street in the heart of Toronto's financial district was the Toronto stop on Sierra's NO, Global Tour. NO is a poignant statement that can be read in multiple ways. As we walked south from Temperance Street across the plaza one could not help but notice that Santiago Sierra's work was directly facing the deliberately lit up Scotiabank Tower, the headquarters of Scotiabank and sponsor of Nuit Blanche.

Center for Tactical Magic, Witches' Cradles, 2009
Brookfield Place, Allen Lambert Galleria

Curated Project Zone B, Curator Jim Drobnick & Jennifer Fisher, DisplayCult
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

I think the Allen Lambert Galleria at Brookfield Place is among the most stunning contemporary commercial architectural spaces in Toronto. Designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, the cathedral like space is a contemporary glass jewel. When we first entered the space it was difficult to figure out what was going on. Crowds of people were standing around a line of suspended fabric sacks, the "witches' cradles" that were suspended from the ceiling. Juxtaposed against the soaring airy space of the Galleria, the "witches' cradles" brought one back to the middle ages and stories of the persecution of witches.

Center for Tactical Magic, Witches' Cradles, 2009
Brookfield Place, Allen Lambert Galleria

Curated Project Zone B, Curator Jim Drobnick & Jennifer Fisher, DisplayCult
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

As we made our way through the crowd we watched as audience members were blind-folded then placed in the cradles. The cradles are designed to disrupt the vestibular sense and create subtle shifts in consciousness. I was both intrigued by the notion of experiencing sensory deprivation but at the same time overwhelmed by the thought of experiencing this in a public venue. What if I fell asleep, or worse yet panicked? I like having control of my senses. How would I react to the possibility of entering into an altered state? So rather than experiencing this for myself, I watched as did thousands of others, as more curious and brave individuals let themselves experience the Witches' Cradles.

Jean-Christian Knaff & Claude Micelli, Moon-een on McCaul, 2009
McCaul Street
Independent Project Zone A
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

As I reflect on my Nuit Blanche experience I wonder how do you determine if events such as these are successful? We started our Nuit Blanche journey just after 7 PM. We walked, we lined-up to get into venues, we peered over the shoulders of othersto glimpse just what the crowds were watching, we passed by other venues not wishing to fight the crowds, and missed an entire Zone. By 3 AM we were saturated. Too much art, or were we just tired of the crowds? It was hard to tell. As we wandered up McCaul St. towards OCAD and the AGO, we encountered Jean-Christian Knaff and Claude Micelli's Moon-een on McCaul. This surrealist world of floating neon on white animated animals was engaging the early-morning crowds. We watched as individuals posed for photos, interacting and playing amongst the figures. Everyone was smiling, and enjoying themselves.

Jean-Christian Knaff & Claude Micelli, Moon-een on McCaul, 2009
OCAD, McCaul Street
Independent Project Zone A
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

What is it that makes a work of art a success? On one level these balloon like figures were comical and child-like, on another they allowed the viewer to interact and engage and imagine themselves in a fantasy world.

D.A. Therrien, Beautiul Light: 4 Letter Word Machine, 2009
City Hall
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009, Toronto, ON

There are many ways to experience art. For some it is the act of creation. For others it is a visit to a quiet museum or gallery space to think about and contemplate works of art. For others it is the excitement of gallery openings or performances. While others collect and surround themselves with works of art. And for some people art is not a conscious part of their daily lives. So, I am still left wondering, where exactly do events such as Nuit Blanche fit within all of this?