Pink Mafia tips to Nuit Blanche 2009
2 Oct 2009It’s that time of the year, folks – Nuit Blanche is back for another sleepless night! We care about you over here at Pink Mafia, so we thought we’d make you a guide on how to make the most out of that night.
TIPS:
- Plan ahead. There might be two really cool installations going on around the same time, but check first how far they are from each other. Follow a route, so you’re not wandering around aimlessly and miss out on all the cool shit.
- Bring water! Whether you’re biking, walking or TTCing for Nuit Blanche, you need to stay hydrated. Of course, bring alcohol with you too (vodka in plastic bottles is where it’s at). On that same note, don’t get too drunk early on. It might be fun at first, but passing out at 11pm is super lame.
- Choose yer company wisely! If you wanna go full out and spend the night wandering, don’t bring those friends who will feel like going home a couple of hours into the festivities. Also, not all your friends will want to do the same things you want to do.
- Find some spots to rest up at. If you’re hungry late at night, Sneaky Dee’s (College/Bathurst) or Lakeview Lunch (Ossington/Dundas) are good spots. Also, from 12am to 6am, Fynn’s of Temple Bar (King/Brant) will be offering complimentary hot chocolate and coffee.
PINK MAFIA’S PICKS:
Battle Royal
Shaun El C. Leonardo – New York City, USA
Inspired by Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man, 20 men will enter Toronto’s original bus depot with lingering art-deco design and step into a 17’ steel cage. Shaun El Conquistador Leonardo (artist and trained fighter) along with 19 of Canada’s elite pro-wrestlers will fight blindfolded until only one man is left standing.
The match is an intense, theatrical recreation of the book’s opening scene also entitled Battle Royal. Occupying a space between literary representation, wrestling spectacle and art performance, Battle Royal is an unscripted event harkening back to the actual fight to-the-end bouts African Americans were encouraged to enter for prize winnings during post-slavery American South; while manifesting the artist’s own personal fear of societal invisibility.
Beginning at 7pm members of the audience are invited to be blindfolded and escorted into the cage where they will have the opportunity to feel the intimidation and potential of aggression Battle Royal encompasses. Gradually, as the night reaches its peak, professional wrestlers will be introduced to the ring, initiating the action while the artist, Shaun El C. Leonardo, seeks to withstand the pain, embarrassment and discomfort of struggling in front of eyes without having sight himself.
Monopoly with Real Money, 2009
IAIN BAXTER – Windsor, Canada
Money becomes a conceptual and tactile medium as Toronto celebrities play the iconic real estate board game throughout the night at the TSX. This timely restaging of the artist’s 1973 event draws an eerie connection between the 1970s era-defining recession and today’s market meltdown. Monopoly, patented during the Great Depression, gains new relevance with every boom-and-bust cycle. Does it provide an escape from the grim reality of stock-market crashes and factory layoffs, or offer a training ground for the next generation of would-be entrepreneurs? See how unlikely combinations of artists, musicians, journalists, authors, media personalities, and (yes!) financiers and developers vie for prize properties in an uncertain investment climate — all played in cold, hard cash.
PhotoSecret
Rob Gee – Toronto, Canada
We all have a secret that’s been tugging away at our heart’s strings for as long as we can remember. We often wish we could tell someone – anyone – to ease the heartache. What if you could share your secret, anonymously, with the world? How great would it feel to put it down after all these years?
Embracing “the exhibitionist in all of us”, PhotoSecret is an interactive exhibit that encourages visitors to anonymously txt a secret with their mobile phone. The more adventurous can take their photo at one of the custom photo booths. The crowd will come alive when photo and secret are randomly paired and displayed above the city for all to see.
Body Language
Kayla Harris – Vancouver, Canada
Rasso Bruckert – Germany
Belinda Mason-Lovering – Australia
Body Language is a photography exhibit artfully depicting themes of intimacy, sensuality, sexuality and disability. It’s a frank and realistic exploration of sexuality and people with disabilities. Acclaimed works from Germany, Australia and Canada reflect the diversity of experiences of disability, and within that, the diversity of lives and desires, an acknowledgement that disability is just one part of a life experience.
Vodka Pool
Dan Mihaltianu – Berlin, Germany
As viewers gather around a reflecting pool of alcohol situated on the pristine floor of the atrium, they can ponder the volatile and symbolic qualities of 80-proof vodka. Liquor and liquidity bear more than passing associations to banks and money. Intoxicating, like the euphoria of riches; evaporating, like the vanishing of investments during economic downturns; alchemical, like the transformation of use value into exchange value. In black markets and other underground economies, the connections are even more literal. During wars and totalitarian regimes, such as Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship in alcohol serves as both an escape and a home-brewed currency for procuring essential goods and services.”
Gladstone Hotel – The sheVISIONS Collective
A.R.R.R.T (Artistically, Recycling, Reusing, Reclaiming, Twilight) The Evolution of The Human Spirit
Suzi Horton – Toronto, Canada
Dean Ifill – Toronto, Canada
Bruno Billio – Toronto, Canada
Kayt Lucas – Toronto, Canada
Natasha Gordon – Toronto, Canada
Jonah Hart – Toronto, Canada
Debbie Wilson – Toronto, Canada
Emma Noakes – Guelph, Canada
This contemporary art piece focuses on Light and is supported by a combination of sound, movement, and visual and costume design. The piece begins with Light: 3D visual projections are eased on to the west façade of the Gladstone Hotel, enhanced by sounds from both nature and industry. Then, the first performer climbs out of a lit window and begins to move, suspended high above the audience. In total, four aerial performers represent the journey from amoeba to human form. They perform in succession, each presenting a 20 minute act. The complete installation has a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes. There is a 20 minute intermission in between performances.
BICITYCLE (Bike City)
Kyohei Sakaguchi – Tokyo, Japan
Interactive Mobile Installation
BICITYCLE (Bike-city) is a project about mobile life. Sakaguchi is inspired by the lifestyle, innovation and survival skills of homeless people in Japan. His research focuses on two concepts; mobility and recycling. The houses of the homeless are easy to dismantle and remake because people are forced to move their houses. They separate the infrastructures: water, gas, toilet, and electricity. The houses are made from the scraps of the city, as they understand the materials of urban waste are natural resources. Sakaguchi undertakes this concept further through incorporating used bicycles as a survival action for the city.
For Nuit Blanche, the artist will create 11 mobile housing units, each attached to a bicycle. The audience can interact and relocate the works within the area.
Gabriel Graham has designed an igloo made out of TVs! This is all part of the Nuit Blanche closing party, and looks like it’ll be great.
We’re throwing this party, and it’s going to be fucking rad. Always a good place to end your night, Wrongbar! You can get in free if you’re dressed the part, and there’s also make up artists on site.
Also, if you’re too cool to take part in the Nuit Blanche festivities, how about going to Les Rues des Refusés, the anti-Nuit Blanche art festival that takes place at the same time. Without a doubt, their events won’t be as crowded as the official festivities, and you might see some really original installations. This year, they’re teaming up with Newmindspace to organize the Nuit Blanche Renegade Parade.
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marine