In my interviews this week with the four Scotiabank Nuit Blanche curators, each of them acknowledged the challenges of physically accommodating the huge crowds that will descend on the event tomorrow night.
The Endless Pace (variation for 60 dancers), 2009, Performance Art by Davide Balula
“Nuit Blanche is a victim of its own success,” suggests Zone C curator Christof Migone, above. “My theme, Should I Stay Or Should I Go, is a direct response to the lineups you inevitably see at Nuit Blanche and when you confront one you have to make the decision to stay or to go.”
Consequently, Migone, like his colleagues, made every effort to stage installations out of doors in spaces as open as possible in order to embrace the public’s enthusiasm for this feast of contemporary art. But even a site like the expansive Commerce Court Courtyard, accessible from three sides, is likely to jam up as people stream in to witness Davide Balula’s The Endless Pace (variation for 60 dancers), 2009, above.
Auto Lamp, 2009, Dodge Ram van 96 by Kim Adams
“But what are you going to do?” shrugs Migone. “Originally my zone was going to go all the way to Queen’s Quay; I had a couple of projects that were going to use the water and I was interested in the space under the Gardiner but the zone got shortened for a variety of reasons, one of them being the City’s overall strategy of keeping the event accessible by subway. I understand the organizers’ quandary but it’s almost counterintuitive, as the crowds increase, they’re squeezing them into a smaller area. It’s a gamble, we’ll see if it pays off.”
Migone notes that “there were really three sets of voices determining where each work would be staged: the City, myself and the artist. But really the bulk of credit should go to the City because they know the zones, and more importantly they know the property managers and the history from past Nuit Blanches. The City provided me with a list of possible sites and we did some walk-throughs last winter, we took some pictures and we put them on a photo sharing site where all the artists could access them whether they were down the street or halfway around the world. And then we just slowly pieced it all together from there.”
Migone is the third curator to mention that Google maps with its Street View feature was indispensible in helping to convey locations to artists living outside the city; yet another example of how technology has impacted the art world.
1850, 2010, Light Installation by Sandra Rechico, above left; Arrivals/Departures, 2010 by Michael Fernandes
Some of Migone’s commissions are unquestionably high tech; he has a passion for sound, light and video art but there’s also abundant simplicity as with Balula’s piece or Michael Fernandes’s chalk writing on blackboards (Arrivals/Departures, 2010).
“I was conscious of keeping a range of mediums, different approaches, different generations,” says the curator. “Some of the artists are well established, some are up and coming. The primary goal for me was not to impose myself too much on their work. I see my role as a curator as composing the overall exhibit but I don’t want to be overarching in that role, I don’t want to be too much of a cloak on top of the work. I want each work to breathe and have its own identity.”
“There are some works where people might think they don’t respond to the theme but I believe they all do in some way. I think there’s a nice sensibility in all of them, nothing is sensationalistic or spectacular, which you might say was unwise of me given the nature of the event but I think all of them have a scale that makes them perhaps, more of a slow burn, you’ll have to spend a bit more time with them to appreciate the scope of the work.”
Endgame (Coulrophobia), 2010, Vinyl (Recyled Billboards) by Max Streicher
Migone, of course, understands that time is the one thing truly working against the event. “The challenge is that you have only 12 hours and, let’s face it, you’d need incredible stamina to use all 12 of those hours. So you see what you can. In an ideal scenario, people do some research, they create an itinerary based on the descriptions on the website or in the brochure and then try and do as much of it as they can. I would also advise people to leave a bit of room to meander on the night — it’s a compromise between spending enough time with each piece and seeing as much as you can. You have to accept that you can’t see it all, it’s impossible.”
But what an amazing problem to have; too much choice, too much art: “My impression of Nuit Blanche is that it’s really a rare opportunity for the artists to reach such a large and wide-ranging audience,” says Migone who is looking forward to the event, possibly more than anyone else.
“I’m like the worried parent,” he concludes, “so I plan to stay close to my zone. I consider myself to be the most privileged audience member because I know the process from the inside but I also want to see and experience the finished works. In the case of the participatory ones, I want to participate.”
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