Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche seems to be a pretty polarizing event. People either avoid it or are eager to join in the throngs of art-hungry citizens who spend the night wandering the city streets in search of art and fun.

Generating much debate over the nature and need for art, public and otherwise, Nuit Blanche as an event has learned much from its past experiences and has become a more accessible multimedia extravaganza. However, as artist Christopher Regimbal put it, the event "has the risk of skewing what the public expects from contemporary art toward the loud and the spectacular."

A perforated van emanates light outside The Bay.

Some installations felt forced or ill-conceived but it's eventually up to the art curator inside every one of us to separate the chaff from the wheat. Just like any other artistic anthology, there's much filler amidst some outstanding work. Here are some of my highlights from Nuit Blanche Toronto 2010.

OK, Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam done with Rubik's Cubes. Enough said.

(Turns out this one wasn't even part of Nuit Blanche...)

This relentless beam of blue light in a foggy patch along Front Street demarcated where one day it used to be Lake Ontario's shoreline.

Clowns in the Financial District. Priceless.

In Berczy Park there was a cathedral styled out of camping tents. Inside, Jesus and Mary in sleeping bags and a cross made of canoes.

There was even a project featuring Kraftwerk and some local stand-ins right on the sidewalk. Yeah!

At the Distillery, the permanent art was eye-catching.

This collection of kitsch trinkets wasn't part of Nuit Blanche either -- it was just a window display at a Chinese store -- but I thought it was more entertaining and thought-provoking than some of the other official installations we saw on display...