All Night Art Party: Nuit Blanche Edmonton

Nuit Blanche: French colloquialism for “a sleepless night.”

Since moving to Edmonton, I’ve wanted to volunteer. I really enjoy volunteering and I firmly believe it’s an important place to start exploring new personal or professional goals. It’s a chance to contribute to the community and yourself at the same time! Billy had volunteered as a judge at Taste of Edmonton this summer and that landed him on the volunteer email list for Events Edmonton. A couple of months later, he got a message that was scouting for volunteers for Nuit Blanche. He forwarded it on to to me and I signed up right away. What a cool opportunity!

My role is Art Interpreter for Nuit Blanche, which has me hanging out at the exhibition, speculating about the piece with the visitors, talking to strangers, and being friendly in general so they have a nice time discovering art. The all-night event takes place in downtown Edmonton. I think that some people are curious to see what will happen as the nighttime vibes of downtown Edmonton don’t have the best reputation; it’s either referred to as a ghost town or having rowdy residents. I don’t think Nuit Blanche will have a problem. Their goal is to help Edmontonians see the downtown core in a way they haven’t experienced before and the pieces on display should do just that.

Earlier this week we had our orientation and the Nuit Blanche curator Dave Dyment was there to explain The Half-Lit Moon Exhibition, the main event, that has 11 different pieces that are located in different parts of the downtown core. Featured artists are from all over the world and are very accomplished. There are also 3 special commissions that have been produced especially for Nuit Blanche Edmonton.

Artist Yoko Ono

Many of the pieces that Dyment choose for The Half Lit Moon have loose intellectual ties to the signature artist of the night, Yoko Ono. My interpretation from what I’ve heard is that there will be a peaceful yet subversive vibe surrounding The Half Lit Moon exhibition. In his presentation, Dyment elaborated on Yoko Ono’s career, whom he considers to be one of, if not the, most important artist of our time and is responsible for creating forms of art that we take for granted now because they are so prevalent in society.

In The Wish Tree by Yoko Ono, which will be located on Churchill Square, visitors are encourage to write a wish on paper and then hang it from the trees. Since Edmonton will have 121 trees, a far cry from the original 5 trees at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche in 2008, there’s a lot of room for wishes. After Nuit Blanche, the trees will be planted throughout the community and the wishes are sent to the Peace Tower in Iceland. Dyment told us that wishes from previous exhibitions are stored at the bottom of the town and they are also digitized for history. Whoa.

Edmonton’s Churchill Square and Arts District. Photo via yegishome.ca

Why I think it’s going to be a party:
1) Lights everywhere! – In Andrew Buszchak’s piece, two buildings, the Epcor Building and the Chancery Hall, will be subtly lit and speaking binary code to each other.

2) Bouncy Castle Highrise – Watch bouncy castles stacked to create a highrise in front the Art Gallery of Alberta by artist Jon Sasaki.

3) Balloon Tunnels – Martin Creed’s piece, Half the Air in a Given Space, has the pedways of city centre mall half filled with balloons that you get to walk through.

4) Parkade Party (to watch the dancing cranes) – the official viewing spot for the Dance of the Cranes by Brandon Vickerd is at the top of the City Centre West Parkade. The show starts at 11 p.m. and ends at midnight. Be there or be square.

5) Lost in an urban jungle – Have you ever called out into the universe with no response? Soliloquy by Sasha Krieger is a compilation of films will be beamed on the World Trade Centre Building on Jasper avenue that will make you think about calls unanswered.

6) Grumpy Elves – Local artist Ali Nickerson’s surreal interactive installation involves elves making gifts on the spot and a creepy Christmas Tree to take selfies with.

7) Blooming Wish Tree – Read people’s wishes and send your own out into the universe. Feel the Yoko Ono vibes.

The making of Soccer Pitch by Patricia Monge, photo via curator Dave Dyment’s blog.

8) Bumpy Soccer Pitch – watch children stumble around trying to play soccer in this trippy field by Patricia Monge. It will also be open at certain times for patrons to experience disuption in function.

9) Grand Market – 124th Street Grand Market will be the official market of Nuit Blanche. Hopefully, the Moonshine Doughnut people will be there.

10) Stopping at some of the great downtown bars to wet your whistle

11) Fibre-Optic Flora and Fauna Greenhouse – go see the psychedelic flora and fauna at Flora: Digital Greenhouse by Amelia Scott and Joel Adria

12) Ode to potholes – Artists Sarah Amato and Monique McFarlane want to know how you feel about potholes and you can contribute to their ode with your own artistic creation.

Ode to Potholes

13) A steamroller crushing stuff – Artist collective vsvsvs has a steamroller and will be flattening stuff down in a hockey rink.

Does this sound like an Alice in Wonderland for adults? Yes it does. And I’m psyched about it.

For more infomation about Nuit Blanche:
Website: nuitblancheyeg2015.ca/
Instagram: instagram.com/nuitblancheed
Twitter: twitter.com/NuitBlancheEd
Interview with curator Dave Dyment: Edmonton’s Nuit Blanche a gigantic art party — and more by Fish Griwkowsky, Edmonton Journal

Two cool articles about Yoko Ono:
Yoko Ono: A Reconsideration by Lisa Carver, New York Times Magazine
Yoko Ono: “John’s affair wasn’t hurtful to me. I needed a rest. I needed space.” by Chrissy Iley, The Telegraph