On October 1st, 2011 we celebrated the Nuit Blanche festival in Toronto. This event is held every year, all night long and is absolutely free for all! But what does this festival celebrate? Well, this is an experience of arts of all sort: sound and music, graffiti and sculpture, visual and sensual works of art... you name it and they've got it- and all- ''l'art pour l'art''; meaning, "art for art's sake". This slogan had come into existence in France in the early 19th Century to express a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art has nothing to do with any didactic, moral or utilitarian function. And the festival too was born in France in 1989 and was initially named 'Night of the Arts'. The original plan was to keep every gallery, museum and bookshop open until midnight or later and to transform the entire city into a carnival venue. Gradually, Nuit Blanche or the 'White Night' of Arts came to be celebrated in France, every year from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and today this idea of a night-long festival of the arts has spread around the world, extending its light to our very own city of Toronto.
On this cold windy night, hundreds of Torontonians were seen walking up and down the streets of the city with maps in Hand, and hands in pockets. Scotiabank, the sponsor of Nuit Blanche, Toronto, had meticulously planned this event, which began at 6.59 p.m. and lasted till sunrise. The map divided the city into zones A, B and C, to aid the convenience of art lovers. Every zone had a few commissioned projects, few open call projects and few independent projects presented to us not only by domestic artists but also from artists abroad. I happened to meet and talk to an artist from Los Angeles, just before he inaugurated his exhibition. This one, called "Memorias" was a commissioned one. So when my fellow stroller commented, "oh, so you must be pretty reputed in your field", he hung his head and blushed! The installation was very straight forward; he had wanted to commemorate Ontario immigrant workers by lighting candles in their memory, on a stretch of sand poured out on Yonge street. By the end of the night, there were enough candles to illuminate the dark road and also the hearts of those who passed and stopped inevitably. This is how it was:
The last image is significant because it added to my feeling of nostalgia. Being from Calcutta, India, I could definitely relate to this installation. Any protest, celebration, and both passion and compassion in my home city is often demonstrated by a similar lighting and/or arrangement of candles. And a work of art or not, this exhibit was definitely a work of humane sentiments.
Another installation which arrested a lot of attention was a performance art by the duo- Tibi Tibi Neuspiel and Geoffrey Pugen. It was called "The Tie- break". The two gentlemen were re-enacting the legendary fourth set tie-break from the 1980 Wimbledon Finals between Bjorn Borg (Neuspiel) and John McEnroe (Pugen), throughout the night, for 25 minutes, after every hour. From hair and make-up, costumes and shoes to the tennis court and commentator, everything mimicked the original, down to the minutest detail (even the 'course language'). But believe it or not, the most difficult part of the performance, according to the actors who had been practicing the moves for months now, was acquiring the original brand of white tennis balls used at the Wimbledon game, as they have gone out of production decades ago!
Other installations and exhibitions that I saw in the next two hours are pretty much the following:
1. Morse Code 2. Soon- Forsyth & Pollard
3. Who's Gonna Run This Town- Kate Sansom
4. The design Exchange- Keller & Woodey
6. INFRA- Tonya Hart
There is however one special installation which I would like to mention before ending this article; it was 'The Free Shop" by Basil Alzeri, on Bay street. As the story runs, Alzeri had lost most of his material possessions to a house fire and later decided to give away whatever was left to him, on the White Night. His 'free shop' was made inside a street car (tram) stoppage and it considered his detachment from material goods. The artist's personal belongings saved from the fire were on display for the public to examine. They chose from it and took away with them, whatever they liked. Here below is the little free shop of artist Basil Alzeri:
My tour ended by 9 p.m. And although it was quite early, I decided that I had seen enough for this year. Some art works were "Ahh!!" and others were "blah"; but the experience was worth the walk...
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