Floating office, storefront aquarium part of 2007 Nuit Blanche

Last Updated: Thursday, May 10, 2007 | 1:19 PM ET

CBC Arts

Nuit Blanche, the sunset to sunrise festival of contemporary art held in Toronto for the first time last year, is returning 50 per cent bigger this year.

Darren O'Donnell's Ballroom Dancing, during the 2006 Nuit Blanche, was an irresistable combination of music, children and balloons.
(Nuit Blanche)

A storefront aquarium, a floating office and an intergalactic miracle are among the events promised for the all-night art festival.

Nuit Blanche 2007 will be held from 7:03 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29, to 7:03 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 30.

The success of last year's event, which drew 425,000 participants on a rainy night, has secured the festival as an annual event, Mayor David Miller told a press conference on Thursday.

"We had a self-image as Torontonians that our city embraced things like sports …. That night told us something about Torontonians: that we are a city that appreciates contemporary art," Miller said.

This year's festival will include 123 museums, institutions and neighbourhoods, and about 150 art projects.

Among them is the "intergalactic miracle" promised to materialize in King's College Circle.

Toronto artists Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins were secretive about the nature of the miracle, which they describe as a "sculptural experience" accompanied by sound.

Participants will have to file through a white tent surrounded by emergency vehicles to see the "surprise."

"We want to reflect reality through the lens of pop culture," Borins said.

Toronto artist Sara Graham will construct a floating office, held aloft by helium balloons, in the Bloor-Yorkville area.

Brazil's Laura Belem plans to recreate a rural Brazilian festival on a downtown Toronto street. She will cordon off the street, decorate it with paper flowers and create a soundscape that Torontonians can walk through.

Australian artist Craig Walsh will have a video installation that looks like a storefront filling up with water in the Queen St. West/Liberty Village area.

The work, complete with fish, will be part of a collection of works on the theme "supernatural city," said Camilla Singh, one of three curators who will help pull Nuit Blanche together.

Singh, a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art; Michelle Jacques, an assistant curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario; and Rhonda Corvese, an independent Toronto curator, have chosen only a handful of exhibits so far.

The area covered by Nuit Blanche will be increased, but it is to be confined to three distinct areas of the city so visitors can move easily from one exhibit to another.

Miller told the press conference that Torontonians approached him last year, in the midst of the festival, to demand a repeat.

Fujiko Nakaya's Fog was one of the most popular events of 2006 Nuit Blanche.
(Nuit Blanche)

"People were coming out of the fog, in the pouring rain, and screaming with joy," he said, describing one of 2006's most popular installations, a fog generator on Philosopher's Walk at the University of Toronto campus.

The city of Paris, where the Nuit Blanche concept originated, is looking for closer ties with cities that have followed its lead and created their own White Night, said Coun. Kyle Rae.

Rae said Paris is exploring the idea of artistic exchanges, in which Parisian artists would bring their work to Toronto for its all-night festival and Canadian artists would have a chance to exhibit in Paris.