Nuit Blanche 2014 #snbTO
October 4 from 6:53 pm to sunrise of October 5, 2014 was Nuit Blanche, an annual free all-night contemporary art event. This is the 9th year that this event, which is translated as “Sleepless Night”, has been celebrated in Toronto.
Here’s a little backgrounder from the Nuit Blanche Toronto website:
Nuit Blanche was originally conceived in Paris, France in 2002, in an attempt to bring contemporary art to the masses in public spaces… At its core, Nuit Blanche is a 12-hour event with a mandate to make contemporary art accessible to large audiences, while inspiring dialogue and engaging the public to examine its significance and impact on public space.
Nuit Blanche in 2008 and 2011 was much better, I think, compared to this year’s event. There were more exhibits, projects, street performers in those years that I remember. I still enjoyed the few exhibits that I saw this year though. The coolest project from this year’s event, in my opinion, was the Gap Ecology (Still Lives with Cherry Pickers and Palms) exhibit by David Brooks (New York, USA) at the Queen St. and John St. intersection, which showcased seven “cherry pickers” (crane-like aerial lift equipment) that were filled with palm trees/plants which made it like an “urban jungle” in the city.
One other interesting thing from the event was the Monument to North American Energy Security by the CanAmerican Energy Arts Team (Calgary, Canada) which featured two large oil barrels connected by a pipeline to represent Canadian-American energy independence. The sculpture they had looked like it was oil (or chocolate syrup) coming out of the fountain and floating above the water at the Nathan Phillips Square pool.
I didn’t get to view all the exhibits, so I may have missed some other good ones.
Let me share below just a few pictures I took from the event:
If you want to see more Nuit Blanche pictures from other people, search for the hashtag #snbTO or #NuitBlanche on Twitter or Instagram.
Also, there are ten extended projects that will still be around until October 13th for “Après Nuit”. Check out the list at http://www.snbto.ca/2014-event/extension.html.
The “earth” without “art” is just “eh”.
Tech-Life in Pink 