Last night was Toronto’s annual ‘All Night Contemporary Art Thing’, Nuit Blanche. Now in its sixth incarnation, the event has gone from inspiring wonder in audiences to inspiring complex plans on how best to navigate the crowds. Many people start out at 7 pm and go until 12 or 1, which makes sense but creates a frustrating logjam of people at every installation.

AES+F, The Feast of Trimalchio. Image: vvork.com

While it will always be a challenge to bring universally pleasing, high impact, accessible art into public areas that lasts from 7 pm to 7 am, I felt that this year was more successful than past years, in part because there were fewer works that involved lining up, and in part because, well, I had a plan.

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Last night in Toronto’s Kensington Market, a group of about 60 or so gathered to hear two panel discussions – one on the city’s annual “All Night Contemporary Art Thing”, Nuit Blanche, and the other to discuss the idea of a Toronto Biennale.

The TAAC panel last night. Image: P Elaine Sharpe.

The event was organized by the Toronto Alliance of Art Critics, of which I’m a member.

Though I had to leave before the second panel, some of the issues raised about Nuit Blanche were the difficulty of getting international, in depth coverage of the event due to its timespan – a single night; the fact that there is no significant institutional memory of the event from year to year; the need for more logistical advice for artists and curators to deal with the crowds; and the intrusion of corporate sponsorship onto the art.

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Did you go to Toronto’s “All Night Contemporary Art Thing” – Nuit Blanche this year?
What did you think – Did you LOVE it or LOATHE it?

Fujiko Nakaya’s fog installation at philosopher’s walk at Nuit Blanche 2006. Image: topleftpixel.com

The organizers blocked of Yonge Street – was this a good thing?

How did the art fare? Better or worse than last year?

What were your favorite installations? Least favorite?

Let us know – Nuit Blanche will only improve if we generate a discussion on what worked, and what didn’t.

Please comment below!

I’m not going to Nuit Blanche this year – shocking, I know.

But as we were walking along Bloor street tonight (home from the awkwardly installed exhibition of excellent works by African artist El Anatsui at the ROM) we were enveloped with the sound of a beautiful song, ‘Smile’ written by Charlie Chaplin for Modern Times, emanating from enormous speakers.

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Get ready, Toronto! This year, the city’s much-loved “All Night Contemporary Art Thing”, Nuit Blanche, takes place on October 2, 2010 from 7 pm to 7 am.

Agnès Winter, Monument to Smile, 2007. Image: hustlerofculture.com

It should be good, with a great lineup of curators, each of whom will curate a section of downtown. We have high hopes for McMaster’s choice of The Open Ended Group, Anthony Kiendl’s choice of Dan Graham (!!) and Christof Migone’s choice of French artist Davide Balula, in particular.  And we’re sure Toronto boy Darren O’Donnell (of Haircuts for Children fame) will not disappoint.

And the curators are:

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Artist and curator Dave Dyment curated Zone C at last year’s Nuit Blanche. Among his installations were Michel de Broin’s waterfall and Jon Sasaki’s jaded mascots at Lamport Stadium, both of which helped make Liberty Village the undeniable hit of NB 2008.

Dyment is involved again this year, if rather less officially. He’s curating No Melatonin, a mini-zone in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, along Queen Street West from Roncesvalles to Dufferin.

A still from Jon Sasaki’s video. Image courtesy Dave Dyment.

He was approached by Parkdale’s business improvement centre to put together a street project. It made sense, since as Dyment notes, many of Toronto’s artists actually live in Parkdale.

In a bid to keep it local and highly effective, Dyment has chosen accessible, easily recognizable works by local artists. As he puts it, “The idea is to entice people.”

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Nuit Blanche 2009, which will take place on the night of October 3 from sunset onwards, looks to be excellent again this year. Perhaps more serious than past years, many of the pieces are designed to make you consider the meaning of your surroundings. With more performance-based work than previous years, there are lots of ways for you to get involved with art.

For the Nuit Blanche 2009 website, please click HERE.

Jeff Koons’ Rabbit in New York. Image: rawartint.com

Here are VoCA’s picks:

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1. Canada’s $70,000 Sobey Art Award has announced its longlist

Stay tuned for the shortlist announcement on May 1.

Ilan Sandler, Tactlility, 2005. Image: Ilansandler.com

WEST COAST AND YUKON
Rhonda Weppler & Trevor Mahovsky; Luanne Martineau; Keith Langergraber;Evan Lee; Julie York

PRAIRIES AND THE NORTH
Paul Butler; Marcel Dzama; Sarah Anne Johnson; Jon Pylypchuk; AltheaThauberger

ONTARIO
Shary Boyle; Christian Giroux & Daniel Young; Luis Jacob; Kelly Richardson; Derek Sullivan

QUÉBEC
David Altmejd; Raphaëlle de Groot; Manon De Pauw; Pascal Grandmaison; Adad Hannah

ATLANTIC
Alexandra Flood; Tara K. Wells; Ilan Sandler; Graeme Patterson; Joe
McKay

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LIVE / Jonathan Meese
Saturday, 4 October / 6 PM / $4 Members, $6 Non-Members
The Power Plant

The German artist Jonathan Meese. Image: cfa-berlin.com

Controversial German artist Jonathan Meese, whose wild, unhinged installations and performances are sometimes described as “social exorcisms” comes to Toronto for his first Canadian exhibition and performance this weekend.

DO NOT MISS THIS!!

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Nuit Blanche Toronto takes place this Saturday, October 4th from dusk ’til dawn. Since last year’s audience doubled to 800,000 VoCA has selected what we think will be the evening’s highlights.

Click HERE for our critics picks of Zone A and HERE for Zone B.

Zone C is down in Toronto’s Liberty Village this year, and is made up of two exhibitions by two curators, Haema Sivanesan, executive director of SAVAC, the South Asian Visual Arts Centre in Toronto and Dave Dyment, artist and former co-director of Mercer Union Contemporary Art Centre, Toronto

Our picks for Dave Dyment’s exhibition, titled Beginning to See the Light, are:

1. Overflow, 2008 by Michel de Broin

Michel de Broin, Solitude, 2001. Image: micheldebroin.org

We’re pretty sure the 2007 Sobey Award winner won’t disappoint. This is the man who imagined suspendina a mobile home from a crane and risked arrest for driving a pedal-powered Buick Regal downtown.

This piece will present a waterfall flowing from a third story window.

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