Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Celebrates Tenth Anniversary

Sep 29, 2015 | Arts

Campbell's House- Your Eye Inside Out, created by JR

Campbell’s House – Your Eye Inside Out, created by JR.

By Amanda Tuzi

Toronto’s free overnight contemporary visual arts festival is coming back to the city’s streets with more than 110 projects created by 400 artists.

The tenth annual edition of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche will begin at sunset at 6:55 p.m. this coming Saturday and run until sunrise on Sunday Oct. 4.

“I think people love to be engaged with an artistic and cultural adventure that’s an urban adventure and I think they both love the exploration of the artworks,” Scotiabank Nuit Blanche spokesperson, Kristine Germann, told Humber News on Tuesday.

“They love being provoked or surprised by the different artworks that are presented every year.”

Light Cave, FriendsWithYou (Originally co-produced by Art Production Fund and The Standard Hotel)

One of this year’s features are curator-directed exhibitions, produced by the city of Toronto, which will feature over 45 art projects designed by local, national and international artists.

Exhibits this year include 10 for 10th, HTUOS/HTRON The New Coordinates of the Americas, Black and White Night, and The Work of Wind.

In honour of the event’s 10th anniversary, Toronto curator Che Kothari has put together an exhibition called ’10 for 10th: Memory Lane.’  It will be taking place at various locations across the city. The installations, created by 10 major cultural organizations, will represent the exploration of memory.

Silent Knight by Ekow Knight, photo courtesy of Janick Laurent

Silent Knight by Ekow Knight, photo courtesy of Janick Laurent

Other events will feature the artist JR, the creator behind The Black and White Night exhibition located at City Hall and at locations on Bay Street.

“This is our first artist exhibition where we dedicated one whole (exhibition) to one artist,” said Germann.

“Probably the heart of his exhibition is the Inside Out Project which he’s done all over the world.” The display gives everyone the opportunity to share his or her portrait in the form of a mural.

To help make the event, photobooths have been travelling across the city to snap portraits of Torontonians. Participants enter the photo booth, make a serious face and within three minutes a black and white poster is printed.

On the night of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, all of the photos will be part of the installations at the various locations.

Beaufort 12, is apart of The Work of Wind exhibition curated by Christine Shaw

Beaufort 12, is apart of The Work of Wind exhibition curated by Christine Shaw.

Another exhibition is The Work of Wind, created by Kristen Shaw, who is the curator-director of Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga. The waterfront exhibit from York Street to Parliament Street, involves 13 installations that depict the 13 forces of the Beaufort Scale of Wind Force. The scale ranges from zero (Calm) to 12 (Hurricane).

Time of the Empress, Aziz & Cucher.

Time of the Empress, Aziz & Cucher.

The fourth and final exhibition is HTUOS/HTRON The New Coordinates of the Americas curated by Agustin Pérez Rubio. The installations, located at the University of Toronto and along College Street, are a revolutionary take on pan-American geography and history.

Along with the exhibitions, spectators will see independent projects from Toronto artists and be able to visit cultural and educational institutions, museums and galleries touching on the theme of Memory Lane.

For people who can’t make the one-night-only event, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche will extend a few of the installations until Oct. 12.