11th edition
October 1–2, 2016
Nuit Blanche Toronto offers uninitiated and devoted art enthusiasts an accessible and exciting night of contemporary art. From sunset to sunrise city spaces and neighbourhoods are transformed into temporary exhibitions. Unusual or forbidden spaces become sites of contemporary art open for all-night discovery and rediscovery. Cultural institutions, from museums to galleries and artist-run centres, open their doors and offer free access to contemporary art.
At the 11th edition of Nuit Blanche Toronto, four exhibitions featuring 33 international, site-specific art commissions will transform the city’s public space for a series of exhilarating contemporary art experiences. Curators Camille Hong Xin (New York), Paco Barragán (Santiago de Chile/Amsterdam), Louise Déry (Montreal), and Janine Marchessault and Michael Prokopow (Toronto) will present their unique curatorial visions:
And the Transformation Reveals
Curator: Camille Hong Xin (New York)
Artists: Bill Viola, John Akomfrah, Angelo Musco, Kevin Cooley, Daniel Canogar, KURT, David Rokeby, Luzinterruptus, Lisa Park, and Vladimir Antaki
The central theme of And the Transformation Reveals is largely inspired by the mystery of transformation in Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry. In his poem, “Duino Elegies,” Rilke envisions—for human and for Earth—a reciprocal transformation. To a real extent, they become each other. The selected works in this exhibition not only point to a process where the essence and/or appearance are reconfigured, but also offer us a mind and body experience where our being is transformed from within.
Militant Nostalgia
Curator: Paco Barragán (Santiago de Chile/Amsterdam)
Artists: José Lerma, Tim White-Sobieski, Santiago Sierra, Maria José Arjona, Erwin Olaf, Arturo Duclos, Nicola Verlato, Rebecca Belmore, Trevor Mahovsky, Rhonda Weppler, and Enrique Marty
Militant Nostalgia tackles mediation and meditation on history and the passage of time. Nostaglia functions as an intermediary between the collective (history) and the individual (memory). The 21st Century has brought about a moment of profound crisis, despair and deception, and a discrediting of the big theories and ideologies (meta-narratives) that provide comprehensive explanation of our world. Militant Nostalgia allows us to look back at our past histories and memories searching for unrealized projects, failed dreams and unconsidered propositions.
Facing the Sky
Curator: Louise Déry (Montreal)
Artists: Joan Fontcuberta, Julie C. Fortier, Myriam Yates, Miguel Angel Ríos, Pascal Grandmaison, Marie-Claire Blais, Shary Boyle, Paul-André Fortier, Samuel Bianchini, Zacharias Kunuk, and Jean‑Pierre Aubé
In a world where the sky is being sold by the piece to meet the demands of the communication industry and in which formidable powers are busy hiding information or spying on the transmitted signals, artists will look to the night to reveal it and shape the invisible in its multiple dimensions. They will remind us of the ambivalence of our relation with the night-world, a world of bright stars as much as black holes, of dreams as much as fear, of survival as much as apocalypse, of heaviness and weightlessness.
OBLIVION
Curators: Janine Marchessault (Toronto) & Michael Prokopow (Toronto)
Artists: Philip Beesley, Floria Sigismondi, and Director X
OBLIVION is about destruction and forgetting. It is about drowning in the pitch-blackness of pure and final absence. And it is about the possibilities of adaptation and unprecedented renewal. Autonomous and connected, three works encourage reflection on the immensities, vulnerabilities and breathtakingly terrifying realities of the universe.
About Nuit Blanche Toronto
Nuit Blanche is an annual all-night celebration of contemporary art, produced by the City of Toronto in collaboration with Toronto’s arts community. Since 2006, this award-winning event has featured nearly 1,300 art installations by approximately 4,600 local, national and international artists.
Previous Nuit Blanche Toronto artists and curators have included Ai Weiwei, Ami Barak, Aziz + Cucher, Bill Viola, Douglas Coupland, Geoffrey Farmer, Jeff Koons, John Sasaki, JR, Michael Snow, Marman + Borins, Marman + Borins, Luis Jacob, Olafur Eliasson, Rebecca Belmore, Santiago Sierra, Skeena Reece, Tadashi Kuwamata, Tania Bruguera, Yoko Ono among many others.
Media contact: Justine Palinska, jpalins [at] toronto.ca / T 416 395 7318
