Nuit Blanched

"The night starts here, The night starts here Forget your name, Forget your fear." [MP3] Stars - The Night Starts Here

After an all-night contemporary art crawl, it's been one lazy Sunday for me. So while I snack on some cupcakes, here's how my first Nuit Blanche went. In case you didn't know:

Nuit Blanche: a free all-night contemporary art thing
September 29, 2007 - 7:03 pm to sunrise
For one sleepless night, experience Toronto transformed by artists. Discover art in galleries, museums and unexpected places. From alleyways and demolition sites to churches and squash courts, explore more than 195 destinations. One night only. All night long.

I had a relatively late start to Nuit Blanche: I had a baby-shower type thing in the afternoon, so I crashed for a few hours before heading out.

Armed with: a guide book, two cans of Red Bull, couple of light layers of clothing, power bars, comfortable walking shoes, iPod, and a camera.

Should have also brought: water and a small flashlight to help read the guide.

The Night Starts Here:
Link: Nuit Blanche Toronto 2007 pictures (Flickr)
Link:the2scoops Nuit Blanche photo essay - The Night Starts Here

10:30 pm - Meet up with Kay and we start at Charles Street at the top of the University of Toronto campus. The Canard Development Group is a concept of a development company office, but all I saw was a canvas roof suspended by balloons. It was a beautiful and strange thing to find floating over campus. "Strange" and "beautiful" would be the theme of the night.

10:45 pm - Deepature (Exhibition #A3) was a film installation. The footage is of a wolf and a deer confined in the same white, featureless room. Your conventional expectations are rattled as both animals don't know what to do in this unnatural environment. Each movement from the wolf illicits a gasp as the tension builds.

11:00 pm University Avenue in front of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Gardiner Ceramics Museum are jammed tight with pedestrians.

11:30 pm

Made our way over to the Hollander York Gallery in Yorkville for Progression: Painting and Jazz (Exhibition A25) where my friend Rando Calrissian was playing bass. He was part of a combo with jazz pianist Thompson T. Egbo-Egbo, providing musical accompaniment as Valerie Butters, Douglas Edwards, Raphael Montpetit, Leif Ostlund painted to live funk and jazz. A packed house and some great tunes.

Midnight - The line-up for the exhibit at Lower Bay Subway Station was ridiculously long, so we took some time to check out the "art à la carte" all-nighter at the Metro Reference Library.

1:30 am - We made our way over to The Distillery District where it wasn’t as packed as Queen or Yorkville. The site was lively with nightlife as many of the artists who operate out of the area opened their doors to the night.

2:00 am - The highlight: Dance Ontario presenting a live performance of the Michael Jackson "Thriller" dance number. The crowd cheered them on as they thrilled into the night.

2:30 am – Coffee and cake break at Café Uno in the Distillery. A number of cafes are open extra late. And man was that coffee tasting good.

3:30 am – We make our way to the Ontario College of Art and Design. Heads are starting to nod and eyelids flicker

4:30 am – After strolling through Grange Park behind OCAD we popped in to catch the last few minutes of the Theatre of Ephemeral Music in the Music Gallery. We’re in a church, with a guitarist, pianist, DJ’s and multimedia artists are mashing together in a mellow, trance-like way. The mood is relaxed, the visuals hypnotic, and the music otherworldly. A perfect end to the night.

5:00 am – Time to call it a Nuit. Off to catch the subway.

Getting Around:

The good news was that the Toronto Transit Commission were providing some special late night bus and subway services until the next morning. The Yonge/-University subway line from St. George to Eglinton, and the Bloor-Danforth subway line from Christie to Broadview will also run all night. Also there were all night shuttles between sites in addition to the usuall all-night bus and streetcars lines. All in all it was a good and easy night, except for the long wait time between shuttles. Hopefully next year will see the subway routes extended a few more stops.

The bad new: TTC day passes were sold out at multiple locations last night. Fortunately my friend Kay had managed to get one, so we were covered. While I'm glad enough people were taking transit to warrant a sell-out, I hope to see more passes made available next year.

Overall:
We spent most of the night in Zone A and Zone B, and I would have loved to have more time to explore the Queen Street area of Zone C. But there is so much to see and so little time. The streets were jammed with people and line-ups ran around the block for some exhibits. By about 1 am, the crowds started to thin out a bit as the families and lightweights went home. It was a great night, with a few fantastic finds.

Too bad I missed: The Stables at Casa Loma, The Ghost Station at Lower Bay Station, Bloor Nightlight installations at Bloor & Lansdowne.

Next year: More planning on my part, better route, bigger group. I’d probably start in the less congested areas and make my way over to the Bloor and Queen areas by early morning.