“The rose is without why, it blooms because it blooms, it cares not for itself, asks not if it is seen.”
The quote from Johann Scheffl er, shining at the top railing of Nathan Phillips Square, is the model quote for this year’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Toronto’s annual all-night celebration of art.
It speaks of the rejection of rational explanation, and instead looks at the underlying elements that affect us all. Something can be said about the copious amounts of lights, sounds, chairs, bikes, and all the art on the night of October 5. Battling our way through what seems to be half of Toronto at Dundas Square, we hunt down Brendan Fernandes, a York student who graduated in 2002. At Nuit Blanche, Fernandes presents his work “Night Shift,” a performance piece in which characters shred paper and create piles out of the resulting confetti, doing this all through the night without stop.
“The piece is based on King Louis XIV’s ‘Ballet de la nuit,’” says Fernandes. “I changed it in the sense that I made my performers go into shifts, thus representing the working shift and hard labor, contrasted by their creation: gold confetti, which represents celebration, happiness, and the constant look at the new tomorrow.”
In the morning, explains Fernandes, the performers throw it all in the air in celebration. When asked about Scotiabank Nuit Blanche as a whole, Fernandes mentions the parties as well as the perks of being associated with the event, and specifically how it benefi ts Toronto’s culture. Nuit Blanche has almost become an excuse for people of the city, young and old, to go out, get wasted, and have a jolly good time. But ultimately, the night is all about bringing Toronto together to appreciate the art.
It’s hard to miss the marvel that is artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s “Forever Bicycles” sculpture found in Nathan Phillips Square — 3,144 interconnected bicycles structured for breathtaking impact — which represents transition, continuing global impact, and the future course of his homeland, China.
This year, Nuit Blanche feels themed to me. Maybe it’s the art I’ve chosen to see or that I’m looking closer, but I notice recurring themes of comfort, the recollection of memory, concentration, and unity. Chairs are a large part of the event. “Garden Tower” by Tadashi Kawamata is a high tower built out of different chairs and benches, each piece of furniture representing a moment of comfort and a memory for someone, an inanimate bonding of people in an amphitheatre-shaped structure.
Another grand exhibit is “Familia, 2006” by Bruno Billio. In Billio’s piece, chairs hang between the ground and the roof, not touching either, but are refl ected by the giant mirror below with the addition
of shuffling sounds. “The piece revolves around family and coming together at the table, and a church, temple, or any place that has that universal ‘come-together,’” explains Billio. “And as for the not touching the ground or the roof, it’s the refl ction that shows everyone still being themselves, and though a family is united, individuals are present.”
A lot of the art at Nuit Blanche this year pays homage to artist Marcel Duchamp and his idea of “readymade” art, which would take ordinary objects and modify them. This was Duchamp’s response to “retina art,” art that was only visual.
Items such as chairs and and bicycles, that to us seem like ordinary manufactured things, become the vehicles for nuance and reason that dig much deeper than it seems at first glance, demonstrating the unity of everything through the repetition of the items. Toronto typically doesn’t have many people roaming around in the dead of the night, and Nuit Blanche lets us go out and experience it differently, even if we may not necessarily be hunting for specific works of art.
But Nuit Blanche is different in the eyes of art-lovers, and by taking the time to speak with the artists, one can learn a lot more about the art and get more out of the experience as a whole. Nuit Blanche attracts well over a million people, and whether or not they’re there for the art or to roam the streets with friends, the beauty is in how it brings the city together in the night.
Arian Shahnavazy
Contributor
