Staying up late? Well, of course you are.
October 5th is Toronto’s annual all-night, citywide art festival known as Nuit Blanche. Downtown Toronto will be transformed; the streets will be taken over by thousands of people – and for one night – Toronto will take on a new form.
Of course, if you’re up to date on all this, you’ve already begun planning your trip. You’ve already figured out what you need and where you need to go to get the most out of this year’s festivities, right?
What you might not know is that there are a handful of York alumni making a big impact on this year’s event – producing their own exhibits and collaborating with endless amounts of artists all for you – the viewer. York has contributed to these artists’ success, and they are more than excited to show off all their hard work to the masses that will be flocking to the downtown core of Toronto.
Brendan Fernandes – York BFA 2002 Visual Arts graduate.
Brendan Fernandes is producing a 12-hour dance endurance performance entitled Night Shift. The exhibit itself is inspired by Le Ballet de la Nuit, a dance created when King Louis XIV of France was reinstated as king, and then proceeded to force his court to dance from dusk till dawn.
King Louis XIV promised his court that if they danced for the entire night, a new day would rise – with the king making a solo dance appearance as the “Sun King” at the end.
“It’s been a year in the making, conceptually it has taken even longer. It’s something I have been thinking about for a long time,” says Fernandes. “There are costumes, there’s music, and everything is going to be original.”
This piece in particular is in collaboration with Michael Trent and Dancemakers Toronto. It will utilize 17 dancers who will work in four-hour shifts for a total of 12 hours. There’s also going to be heavy amounts of gold confetti on hand for those special moments of celebration, all in anticipation of the new day.
“With a performance piece that lasts for 12 hours, there’s a lot of work to properly conceptualize how it will all come together,” he says.
“Nuit Blanche is totally special, it’s a definite challenge.”
Located in the financial district, Fernandes’ exhibition will take place 181 Bay Street taking over the space for one night. It’s intended to reflect the area it’s located in, and give audiences some quiet political critique.
“I think my work always has a subtle political edge,” adds Fernandes. “I’m always thinking of questions about social solidarity, the idea of people coming together and working collaboratively.”
“Working in the financial district, it marks an economy, it’s almost counterfeit. I ask myself, how does one labour? How does one get paid for their work? That gesture of labour is in the performance act.”
Fernandes is excited for Nuit Blanche because it truly opens up the city and allows a hugely diverse audience to experience art in such a unique way. It’s especially important to note that York helped him get where he is today.
“York was an amazing place where I got to explore visual arts and dance,” he says. “I’m still collaborating with many of my York friends for this piece.”
“One thing I really remember is my time on residence and meeting different people. York really opened things up for me. I was able to explore different people’s ideas and hear dialogue from them. It was a really important time for me to grow and mature.”
To read more about Fernandes’ exhibit, go ahead and visit his Nuit Blanche preview here. However, it’d be an even better idea to see this exhibit in person on Saturday night
Brendan Fernandes, in collaboration with Michael Trent, Dancemakers and the Performers.
Rehearsal documentation: photographer: Dancemakers.
Dancers in the images: Robert Abubo, Amanda Acorn, Jolyane Langlois and Colleen Snell.
Original Score by: Thomas Ian Campbell.
Costume design by: Vanessa Fischer.
Dylan Reibling BFA 2002 Film and Video
Another York alumni making his mark on Nuit Blanche this year is Dylan Reibling, with his exhibit based off his previous 2011 work called 12 Hour Dolly.
Back in 2011, Reibling set up a stage in downtown Toronto accompanied by a camera on a circular dolly that ran for 12 continuous hours. Audience members were invited to participate and use the stage in any way they saw fit. The results were nothing short of spectacular.
“Now, we’re screening it,” says Reibling. “This year I am exhibiting the 12 hour uncut film, and in order to contain the conceptual integrity of the project, I won’t show it as a clip, or edit in any way.”
In 2011 Reibling was surprised to see how willing audience members were, with very few gaps in the filming process. He was expecting less from his audience, but was pleasantly surprised by how many people that wanted to take part.
“We saw at the beginning of the night that people were performing, doing dances, or little vignettes of scenes,” he says.
“But as the night progressed people really started to ease into the project as a moving picture portrait. I tried to encourage that by offering a suspended frame on stage to the audience.”
“I was trying to give the importance of portrait sessions to ease people into it. They didn’t feel it was necessary to perform any specific performance, but rather just use the stage and participate with just their presence.”
12 Hour Dolly – installation view from Dylan Reibling on Vimeo.
This exhibit will be a chance for audience members to interpret and contemplate these results for themselves.
As for his time at York, he credits the professors with helping him engage directly with film as a medium and lead him on the path to where his career is today. It is his education at York that has contributed to where his career has taken him.
“Some of the professors at York really helped me find out what it was that made me passionate about film and get to the heart of it, which was really engaging with the medium itself,” he says.
“It was a really important part of helping me define who I am as an artist.”
The exhibit itself will be located at the TIFF Bell Lightbox at 350 King Street West.
“The way these installations transform the space of the city is really quite incredible,” he adds.
“I still carry the memories of the avant garde art installation in the spaces of Toronto. In a way it has transformed the cityscape for me permanently.”
Shannon Litzenberger York MA Dance Graduate 2005
Shannon Litzenberger’s will be producing her very own exhibit at Nuit Blanche this year entitled Everyday Marvels. She describes it as an episodic performance installation based off the book Everyday Marvels by Canadian author Lorna Crozier, that will run from sunrise to sunset.
“Everyday Marvels is a book of poetry with all the poems about everyday objects,” says Litzenberger. “What I’ve done is work with eight choreographers, who have each selected two different poems out of this book. They are creating short choreographies based on the poems that they’ve selected.”
The objects include things like radiators, flashlights, vacuums, and many other simple everyday objects. Litzenberger is collaborating with a large mix of professional dancers and students from the Toronto dance community, including York and Ryerson. She is also utilizing the skills of a handful of RBC employees who will also take part in the exhibit.
Everyday Marvels from Shannon Litzenberger on Vimeo.
“The idea is to get a cross section of people in order to build a sense of community and give opportunities to people to build new relationships,” she adds.
“Dance students will be able to work with other professionals and choreographers to help build their resume and get experience after graduating. This will be a big showing for them.”
“This will be a good audience building activity and it’s also a good way to get bigger exposure for contemporary art and contemporary dance. It’s not an easy environment to produce at Nuit Blanche. It can be very chaotic and unpredictable, but you can play with that,” says Litzenberger. “It’s not the same controlled environment that you would have in a theatre setting.”
“It’s going to be epic,” she adds.
Located on the third floor of the Gardiner Museum at 111 Queens Park, across from the Royal Ontario Museum – Litzenberger is excited for this exhibit to not only promote her own work, but progress the careers of all the dancers involved. It’s taken well over a year from the original conception to bring this project to Nuit Blanche.
“When I did my masters degree at York, I looked at the issue of mentorship and the transitioning of artists into a professional career,” she says. “Mentorship is this way of helping bring artists to the professional field after graduating. I’ve integrated that thinking into the design of this project.”
“By hiring artists out of school I hope that’s going to have a positive impact on the field and I hope to put these ideas into practice in my own work as a professional. “
With over 60 artists involved with Litzenberger’s exhibit, she claims that the anticipation is killing her.
“Everyone has put in such a tremendous amount of creativity and energy into this project. It’s a fantastic showcase of what the Toronto dance community has to offer,” she says.
As for anyone that can’t wait for the sun to set, there’s a pre-event get-together at the Gardiner Museum that will also include an appearance from the author of Everyday Marvels Lorna Crozier. We hear there will be wine – so you should consider checking it out.
Michael Burton
Executive Editor (Online)
