Event: White Night, Big City!

Toronto Nuit Blanche Culture & Art Event Recap

Last Saturday night was one of my favourite Toronto events: Nuit Blanche. And even though I was battling a bad cold and completely exhausted from working overtime at my job, I bundled up and went out to enjoy a night of free art.

Safe Space, Drake Hotel

Since 2006, Nuit Blanche is a magical night when the city of Toronto is transformed into a giant museum. I have been going to Nuit Blanche since the second year it started here in Toronto and have seen it change and evolve into the huge event it is now.

Abstractus by Ximena Steevens and Mauricio Velez at Gladstone Hotel

Magic Carpet by Apollonia Vanova

This year, different areas of Toronto opened up to host curated areas of Nuit Blanche, like Fort York and Spadina Avenue. I liked how the amazing space of Fort York was utilized for this event, but traveling between the different curated areas of Queen Street West, Bremner Boulevard and Fort York was quite a far walk with very little installations to view along the way. I didn't spend much time downtown, the crowds and hordes of drunken teens was too much for a sick person like me to take, but I did enjoy several installations and performances I got to view that night. 

Texting Syria

Between Doors, 2014 by Labspace Studio at Fort York

There were so many amazing art installations and performances I saw, but some of the highlights of the night for me were The Gladstone Hotel's third stage to their THEN/NOW/NEXT exhibit and Texting Syria, a haunting photo exhibit that sent you real life text messages from the front lines of the civil war. The cool interactive Between Doors, 2014 and the beautiful Melting Point light installation at Fort York were amazing. I also had fun playing a life size game of Snakes and Ladders and walking through the lighted Amaze Maze under a huge Global Rainbow. And two of my favourites of the night were Walk among Worlds and the mesmerizing Holoscenes.

Gyan Chauper (Snakes and Ladders) by Daniel Samson and Paul Dhir

Holoscenes, 2014 by Early Morning Opera and Lars Jan

Although there were quite a few low lights to this year's Nuit Blanche, the amazing art outshone them and I am already looking forward to what organizers do for next year.

Amaze, 2014 by Marcos Zotes and Global Rainbow, 2012 by Yvette Mattern

Inside Amaze, 2014 by Marcos Zotes

Walk among Worlds, 2011 by Maximo Gonzalez

 

P.s!: Some installations are still up and open to the public until today. Please visit Nuit Blanche for more information. Missed Nuit Blanche? Don't worry it will be back next year! And on a personal note: sorry for the lateness of this post and for being MIA during the past week. I have been battling a bad cold and staying overtime at work. I stretched myself way to thin and something had to give. So sorry.

P.s,

Melanie!