Nuit Blanche is a free one-night only art event in Toronto. Here you get to explore art projects from different parts of the city. Few other cities in Canada also have their own Nuit Blanche per say.
Public transit is available all night to help you get around. Comfortable shoes are a must because there is a fair amount of walking involved.
I’ve been going to Nuit Blanche for 5 years (since 2014).
This year, on September 29th, I went with two friends.
I like drawing up the itinerary. Weeks before the actual event I went on the web site (nbto.com) and looked at the descriptions for all 75+ art projects. Of particular interest would be those that had a performing arts element to them.
In addition, we stayed out all night.
But started at 6 p.m. and finished at 1:30 a.m.
Firstly, we started off in downtown Toronto and finished in Scarborough.
Albeit, Scarborough was participating for the first time this year. However, the Scarborough venues weren’t too crowded. But, it was cool to let your curiosity run wild and go exploring from place to place.
Furthermore, we saw approximately 20 projects during the entire evening.
But, it was a long night just to catch a few gems.
However, the bonding experience was priceless.
In conclusion, here are our 5 highlights of the evening:
Koerner Hall. We started our trek at Koerner Hall. Koerner Hall wasn’t actually a part of Nuit Blanche. It was instead a part of another event called Culture Days (culturedays.ca). Koerner Hall was having an open house. It sounded like an interesting place to go to, because they were having an “open mic” day where performers of all genres were invited to go on stage for five minutes and do their thing. We heard a classical pianist, a woman who sang and played the ukulele, a rock band, etc. I enjoyed the performances. I’d not been to Koerner Hall before, so the open house was a great incentive to visit. Being in the concert hall reminded me of being in Roy Thomson Hall. (Photo Credit: rcmusic.com)
Star Moon Water Stone(Ensemble Jeng Yi). Korean drummers performed live on an indoor stage at the Church of the Redeemer on Bloor St. West. We stayed for 20-30 minutes. Great performances! Great acoustics! I would go back to see this ensemble any time. (Photo Credit: ensemblejengyi.com)
Cavalier Noir (Ekow Nimako and Director X). The artists created this outdoor sculpture using 80,000 pieces of Lego! (Photo Credit: nowtoronto.com)
Radical Histories (Ibrahim Mahama). A patchwork of jute sacks lined a large swath of Toronto City Hall. I’m not sure if what I was seeing was actual sacks or a projection of sacks. It was something to behold. This was an outdoor exhibit. (Photo Credit: nbto.com)
our roots are here, amongst the grasses (Jessica Karuhanga and Y+). This was an outdoor art project in Scarborough. At the entrance to this dark, wooded trail, you experience a video installation on your left. As you walk along the trail and cast your eyes to the right or left, you see little lights illuminate cast hands that are placed on the ground and in the trees. It was a disorienting and transfixing experience.
Article contributed by Jamie Soo
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiesoo/
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