Your 2023 guide to Nuit Blanche

When: Saturday, September 23 @ 7 pm until 7 am Sunday 

Where: Toronto, citywide 

Cost: Free

For one sleepless night, the cityscape of Toronto becomes a canvas for contemporary artists and performances. Originating in Paris in 2002, this event moved to Toronto in 2006, becoming an eagerly anticipated fixture in the city's cultural calendar.

Nuit Blanche transforms the city; public spaces like streets, buildings, parks, and alleys become venues for art installations and performances. Visitors engage directly with art, walking through installations, exploring performances, and interacting with exhibits. In doing so, the event reimagines public spaces while challenging our notions of what art can be and where it can thrive.

The event, which starts at dusk and ends at sunrise, wakes the city to cultural offerings and world-class art, offering a platform for local and international artists to showcase experimental and ambitious projects. It's also a unique interface between art history, architecture, and contemporary art practices. By converting the city into an expansive gallery, the event invites us to question, celebrate, and connect—artistically, emotionally, and socially.

This year's offerings are not to be missed. So grab a coffee, a pair of running shoes, and your Presto pass, and get ready to see art—and Toronto—through a new lens. 

Here are Peggy’s top picks for the 2023 version of Nuit Blanche: 

Image: A Practical Guide, Divya Mehra, 2023. Night Gallery, Los Angeles.

• A Practical Guide + Your Wish is Your Command  
  • Artist:  Divya Mehra
  • Location: Downtown
  • About: Divya Mehra is an artist who explores themes like diaspora, history, and colonialism through multimedia works. For Toronto's Nuit Blanche, she presents two large inflatable sculptures that challenge cultural stereotypes. "A Practical Guide" alters the familiar "THANK YOU" on plastic bags to the word "LOOT," prompting viewers to consider issues of displacement, loss, neutrality and oppression. "Your Wish is Your Command" takes the shape of a large magic lamp to highlight how colonial structures unevenly benefit certain groups.
• A New Nature @ Bathurst Quay 
  • Artist: Mark Dorf
  • Location: Fort York
  • About: The Canada Malting Silos, a nearly 100-year-old landmark at Toronto's harbour, are being revitalized into a civic and cultural space. During Nuit Blanche, a large projection on the silos will highlight the building's transformation. The event will take place at Spadina Pier, a former parking area also undergoing redevelopment. The projection and nearby installations aim to showcase the role of art in transforming public spaces.
    Balangay Starfleet, Leeroy New, 2023. 
• Balangay Starfleet
  • Artist: Leeroy New
  • Location: Scarborough 
  • About: Artist Leeroy New repurposes bamboo and discarded plastics to create futuristic versions of Balangay, ancient Filipino boats. Inspired by his childhood in a resource-poor area of the Philippines and lacking access to traditional art, New blends sci-fi and Filipino mythology to comment on global waste and cultural adaptation.
• The ‘Living’ Room 
  • Artist: Hannah Busse
  • Location: Downtown 
  • About: Toronto artist Hannah Busse's installation "The Living Room" repurposes discarded furniture as planters for local flora. Located in a financial district office building, the exhibit encourages viewers to rethink their consumption habits. Busse aims to inspire change towards reducing, reusing, and recycling.
    

Digital rendering of Kilim, Roda Medhat, 2023. 

• Kilim
  • Artist: Roda Medhat
  • Location: Etobicoke
  • About: "Killim" uses Kurdish textiles and tent traditions to question Western views on permanent construction. Highlighting the sustainability of nomadic lifestyles, the project encourages reflection on environmental preservation and challenges conventional ideas of "Breaking Ground."
    Digital rendering of XO, Nathan Whitford, 2023. 

• XO 
  • Artist: Nathan Whitford
  • Location: Downtown
  • About: The illuminated "XO" installation serves dual purposes: its transient animation says goodbye to the past while symbolizing Toronto's future progress. This light display acts as a farewell and a vibrant welcome, capturing the city's evolving nature.