| Nuit Blanche, Torontos overnight contemporary art festival, has been a huge success since its inception in 2006. From 6:55 pm on October 3, 2009 to sunrise on October 4, 2009, more than 130 projects and installations were scheduled to entice and intrigue an audience of about one million people. I headed downtown by subway and arrived at about 10 pm at Queen and Yonge where the streets were already crowded with revelers. I made my way to City Hall where Beautiful Light: the 4 Letter Word Machine by DA Therrien was installed high in the air between the towers of New City Hall. Four letter words were being created interspersed with unknown alphanumeric characters. Combined with strange voice recordings coming from the huge loudspeakers, this installation to me represented a form of alien communication. Inside City Hall I followed the crowd into the Council Chambers where we saw a video installation called Day Equals Night by Adrian Blackwell representing a day in the life of Regent Park. A rotating projector was displaying images around the room, with the image slowly moving in a circle. Bay Street was blocked to road traffic, so immersed in a huge crowd of people I made my way north to the Eaton Centre where a bronze-coloured cowboy/mime was interacting silently with the crowd. Dundas Square, with its neon lights reminiscent of Times Square in New York City, was absolutely packed with people. Inside a tent in the centre of the square I saw two more installations: Neon ... |
