2011 Event Guide

We are accepting submissions until September 18 27!

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Art and Drinks at Nuit Blanche

by Art and Drinks

location: Art and Drinks, 800 Dundas St. West

Art and Drinks, usually open from sunset to mid night, especially for Nuit Blanche will be open from sunset (7pm) to dawn (7am) as usual selling libations and snacks, alcoholic and otherwise, while displaying time-based art by a stable of half a dozen artists. After last call, the bar will switch up to serving coffee and breakfast snacks, in conjunction with the immediately adjacent Palmerston Café and Patio.

Featuring time-based images by Michael Snow, David Rokeby, John Oswald, Laurel MacDonald, Renée Lear, Bettina Hoffmann, and pending Max Dean and bnotions.

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Art Battle Club Matches

by Art Battle

location: The Spoke Club, 600 King St. West, 4th Floor

10:00 – 2:00

Admission: Free with Facebook RSVP

Sceneopolis and ABSOLUT Vodka Present: Art Battle Club Matches. Join us at The Spoke Club for live competitive painting on Nuit Blanche!!

There will be 5 exciting 1-on-1 Art Battle matches held in the gallery at the luxurious Spoke Club. This is a free event with RSVP on this Facebook event. You can also bring a guest! This is a perfect refuge from the busy streets, relax and enjoy a drink while 10 of Toronto’s best emerging painters battle in live 20 minute matches.

The Line-up:
10:20pm: Chen Cao vs Bryan Belanger
11:00pm: Stephanie del Campo vs Carla Boggiano
11:40pm: Olga Abeleva vs Anna-Karoliina Koskinen
12:20am: Morgan Booth vs William Johnson
1:00am: Jeff Dywelska vs Kamila Grygorczyk

All paintings created at AB Club Matches will be auctioned to the highest bidder. Paintings that fail to meet the minimum bid may be destroyed.

facebook.com/event.php?eid=297067733642038

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Art of Fashion: Design Competition + Designers Boutique

by Art of Fashion

location: Pantages Hotel, 200 Victoria St.

7:00 – 1:00 (Boutique 1:00 pm – 1:00 am)

The Design Competition & Designer’s Boutique will feature live entertainment, great food, fashion, public voting, shopping and much more! Don’t miss the hottest fashion party of the year. FREE ADMISSION Oct 1 at the Pantages Hotel. Walk the AOF red carpet – strike a pose, tweet the pic with #AOF11 & you could win 2 nights with Skyline Hotels!

Each year in the Design Competition, 10 emerging Canadian designers bring their collections to life in an exhibit space and through a fashion show where they compete for 2 awards: Most Promising Designer is decided by an industry judging panel, and Best Exhibit is voted by the public. The winners for both are announced one week after the competition and awarded a monetary grant, exclusive retail and media opportunities, and valuable memberships to art and design organizations.

The Art of Fashion Designers Boutique (formerly named the AOF Trunk Show) is held during the Annual Design Competition, and features up to 20 Canadian designers’ exclusive apparel and accessories. This year will mark the second year the competition and the trunk show have taken place as a part of Scotiabank’s all-night art festival, Nuit Blanche.

Art of Fashion is also a proud sponsor of Re-Think Breast Cancer. Last year we raised funds for this organization by having designers create bras based on the design competition theme and selling them at the trunk show.

artoffashion.org

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Artists in a Fish Bowl

by WeSee Inc.

location: Roadside Attraction, 911 Davenport Road

Surveillance cameras are ubiquitous. Reality Television allows for an interchange between the exhibitionist and the voyeur. Social Media is a powerful tool to unite and give voice to a populace or bring to light that which was meant to be hidden or to promulgate lies and rumours. We are open to the discomfort of scrutiny yet feel entitled to gape.

Utilizing the carnival sideshow illusion “Girl is a Fishbowl” as a point of departure, Artists in a Fishbowl is a site-specific installation and performance work. The show-front banner proclaims that what is seen when peering into the fishbowl is Live and Alive. Utilizing arcane carnival trickery and contemporary technology WeSee Inc. allows a peek into what goes on inside the artists’ studio in real time. Submerged within a fishbowl is a sea shell. Within the shell is the miniaturized studio of WeSee Inc. Sometimes dark and quiet but often the lights come on and the miniature underwater studio comes alive with aquatic artistic activity. Often as not, the physicality of creative function is interrupted by pauses for critical thinking; the scratching of tiny heads; tiny coffee breaks; occasional interruptions by tiny aqua-cats; and the various other mundanities that tiny submerged artists do in their daily lives.

Exhibition continues until October 7, 2011, from 10 am to 11 pm daily,

www.weseeinc.com

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A Post Rock Exhibition

by woah! music

location: the El Mocambo Tavern, 464 Spadina Ave.

7:30 – 1:45, PWYC

woah! music presents “A Post Rock Exhibition” during this year’s Nuit Blanche festival. Local musicians and artists will be showcasing their unconventional approaches to the discipline of art, sound, and rock music.

The event highlights the Arabic Post Punk & Psych music of SNAKE AND CRANE, with previous members of The Vulcan Dub Squad, and an acoustic performance by BRENT JACKSON from THE JUNCTION.

9:00-9:30pm CAILEAN LEWIS
9:45-10:15pm GALAXIES IN THE RIVER
10:30-11:00pm PULLFACE
11:15-11:45pm METSU
12:00-12:45am SNAKE AND CRANE
1:00-1:45am BRENT JACKSON (from The Junction)

Featured artists: David McKenzie, Nadim Zaidi, & Marilyn DiSumma.

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Bees(!): A Two Day Extravaganza of Art and Music That is a Little Stupid

by The White House (studio)

location: The White House (studio), 277.5 Augusta Ave.

7:00 pm – 2:00 am

A great ally, a great danger – of all the insecta is there another that occupies as large a place in our mythos, imagination, and all too brutal realities. BEES have hypnotized, traumatized, terrorized, and tantalized children of all ages throughout the ages. These children grow up to be artists such as yourself. Now is the time for artists to plumb the depths of the sub-conscious and explore the deep-seeded fears, desires, and questions these haplo-diploid creatures so haplo-diplomatically evoke.

The White House Studio will become an immersive honeycomb of hive activity as our next shindig reflects our questionable lack of judgement.

Friday – Sept 30th – 9PM-2AM, OPENING NIGHT / RECEPTION, DJ PETER MALCOLM AND ROBERT DAYTON (AND TBA), & A Mad Honeycomb Dance Floor

Saturday – Oct 1st – PM-AM, WHY NOT? “Nuit Blanche” / BAND TIME. Get ready for Nuit Blanche to be slightly more intelligent through stupidity. FITNESS (AND TBA)+ DJ (.)

Works by: dAeve Fellows, Jenny Peters, Morris Fox, Anna Kovler, Lindsay O’Brien, Erin Finley, Jessica Yargot, Taryn A. Hunter, Adam Cowan, Derek Aubichon, Brandon Dalmer, Bradley Harms, Amanda Martin, Cameron Scott, Johnathan Edward Mayhew

Curated by Brandon Dalmer, Adam Cowan & Derek Aubichon.

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=220745077980845

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Bicycle Nuit Blanche

by Janet Bike Girl

location: 401 Richmond St. West, Studio S-26, Basement. Follow the bicycle stencils!

Come to see a large collection of bicycle stencils representing the various designs of bicycles through history.

Bicycle art, bicycle fabric patches, organic cotton bicycle t-shirts will also be on display

www.flickr.com/janetbikegirl

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Boo Art Studio Show/Dance Party

by Boo Art and Friends

location: On Dupont, east of Bathurst (Follow the signs for Vesta Lunch)

An art show and dance party with surprise musical guests. Bring your dancing shoes!

www.booart.biz

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Caution: Art (part 2)

by Stephanie Avery

location: various locations

During Nuit Blanche Toronto’s entire downtown core is turned into a crazy, interactive art installation and, by default, everything and everyone in that area is simultaneously critical to and part of that transformation. Nuit Banche is a night to look at our city in a new light and appreciate the beauty of even the most simple of objects. That being said, with all the amazing things to see and do, sometimes we need a reminder that the little things are as vital as the big ones.

For the last two years, for Les Rues des Refuses, I have created installations that remind people of the recontextualization of the places and objects that are so familiar (‘Caution: Art’ and ‘Ceci N’est Pas une Ville’). 2011 is a continuation of this theme. From 7:00 pm to 7:00 am I will be making barricades with ‘Caution: Art’ caution tape around objects we normally take for granted. Not only will this explicitly transform regular objects into art, the use of caution tape implies a state of transition and will create an atmosphere of urgency, encouraging us to appreciate the good things in life while we have them because there’s no telling what the future holds. (If you spot me, come say hi and I’ll transform you into art, too!)

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Chemistry Nuit Blanche

by University of Toronto

location: UofT, Willcocks St. and St. Geoarge St., in the Willcocks commons next to the Lash Miller Chemistry Building

7:00 – 11:00

As a celebration of the international year of chemistry, the University of Toronto is hosting a Chemistry Nuit Blanche. Targeting youth and adults, both from the University and the general public, this event aims to promote an understanding of the role that chemistry plays in everyday life. Booths will be set up in the Willcocks commons next to the Lash Miller Chemistry building, discussing various aspects of chemistry, such as food chemistry, atmospheric pollution, the discovery of insulin, etc. Short presentations highlighting each of the booths will be interspersed throughout the evening.

*NEW* Canada Post will introduce a limited-edition stamp to commemorate Canadian chemist and Nobel Prize winner John Polanyi and the 2011 International Year of Chemistry! Join us at 8 PM as Dr. Polanyi unveils the stamp, designed by Tejashri Kapure.

chemistry2011.ca

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Clash: Abstract Works by Suzanne MacRury Closing Soiree

by Ideas Incorporated Gallery

location: 1081 Bathurst St (at Dupont)

7:00 pm – late

The exhibition “Clash” represents the latest in the state of mind by resin-based abstract artist Suzanne MacRury. The show features the continued exploration and experimentation of stroke and texture, colour and technique, of artist caught in a love-hate battle with the medium that is also her muse: resin. Paintings of various depth and dimension will be on display, offering the viewer an array of abstraction to consider. Hot on the heels of the successful AGO show “AbEx”, “Clash” offers homegrown contemporary talent in a style rich in both tradition and continuing innovation. The show runs from September 16th to October 1st, for which we will be hosting a number of events including an opening (September 16th) and a resin demonstration for Culture Days (Sept. 30th). For our final soiree, on October 1st, we will be projecting images from the previous events, images of the work, as well as images from the reception as it’s happening onto the street, and hope to draw people into the world of abstract art. Admission to this final event is free and open to all.

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Damned If She Do

by Robin Luoma

location: 36 Chambers Artist Studio, 1266 Queen St. West, back entrance

7:00 – late

Artist Robin Luoma will be displaying her unconventional silkscreened abstract style paintings en mass in her work space at 36 Chambers. She is also offering limited number of one of a kind silkscreened tshirts, tanktops, hoodies and scarves. You will probably also find her working on current pieces during Nuit Blanche or collaborating with other 36 Chambers artists.

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Food Truck Eats (part 3)

by Ontario Food Trucks

location: The Distillery District, 55 Mill St.

8:00 – 7:0o

Mark your calendars for the 3rd installment in the hugely successful Food Truck Eats series brought to you by Ontario Food Trucks.

Trucks:
Big Grill Catering, Bonfire Catering, Cupcake Diner, El Gastronomo Vagabundo, Felix & Norton Cookies, Gorilla Cheese, New Dog, Olliffe, Portobello Burger, Shriner’s Creek, Twirlee’s, Wingmee’s

Vendors:
Agave y aguacate, Augie’s Ice Pops, Beast Restaurant, Buster Rhinos BBQ, Cava / Xococava, The Grind House, Guy Rawlings/Geoff Hopgood, Hawaiian BBQ Skewers, Marben, Rossy Earle, Sabrosito, The Tempered Chef

..and a few surprises.

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Horror Vacui

by the Hangover Nurse

location: Rebecca Street just off Ossington

Hangover Nurse makes collages using the fast amounts of ephemera she collects on her various perambulations. A deep interest in art history, design, fashion, advertisements, books, dolls and toys, art deco, outsider art, postal mail, games, Victoriana, and old maps converge in chaotic but often poetic and humorous ways.  Some of these collages find their way into public spaces.

Horror Vacui, Nurse’s most recent outdoor installation, references everything from Roman statuary to the french painter Ingres to the Royal wedding to depictions of Japanese Samurai to doll furniture made of dominoes. It is both chaotic and beautiful and, in a way, a reflection of the vast quantity of imagery we experience daily, both online and in the outer world, without really noticing. Already in progress, it will continue to grow and evolve until Nuit Blanche.

www.hangovernurse.com

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Infinitum

by The Cheshire Unicorn

location: the Annex Theater, 730 Bathurst Street

8:00 pm

Admission: 25 dollars entry fee, 15 dollars for students

Having just finished a sold-out run at the Toronto Fringe Festival and receiving outstanding reviews (4 ‘N’s and Critics’ Picks from Now Magazine), Infinitum is back to astonish audiences in its full-length production.

In?nitum is an impressionist movement-based response to the concepts of in?nity and repetition. This fresh, interdisciplinary piece features the internationally acclaimed Dr. Draw’s electric string orchestra, choreography by the renowned Faye Rauw, and is directed by the award-winning Melissa Major. With aerial, bouffon, contortion, and silks this original show is something you won’t want to miss.

Launched in 2002, The Cheshire Unicorn aims to produce innovative, thoughtful, and experimental productions created by Canadian artists. Since its founding, the company has consistently staged thought-provoking and interesting theatre, gaining itself a prestigious reputation in Toronto’s independent theatre market. The Cheshire Unicorn continues to entertain with diverse productions ranging from historical absurdist drama to modern surrealism.

www.cheshireunicorn.com

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Hike and Prayer: Nuit Blanche

by Faith Connections

location: Meet at the Metropolitan Church, 56 Queen St. East

8:00 – 10:30

Young adults (18-39) are invited to join us at Nuit Blanche, an all-night contemporary art festival. Exploring Zone B of the festival, “The Future of the Present” — dedicated to media giant and respected Catholic Marshall McLuhan — we’ll reflect on the “unique interplays between the spiritual, material, and social spheres” presented through the exhibits.

We’ll be meeting at the front doors of the Metropolitan United Church (Queen St E & Church St) on Saturday, October 1, 8:00pm

www.faithconnections.ca

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K-TOWN + XPACE = <3

by K-TOWN

location: XPACE Cultural Center, 58 Ossington Ave.

8:00 – 11:00

K-Town is a video and performance based event by Luke Painter and Meera Margaret Singh that transforms XPACE’s Main Space into a karaoke lounge. Inspired by karaoke culture and the often disparate and melodramatic video content that accompanies singing in karaoke bars, artists have been invited to create video and animation content to musical hits of their choosing. With a catalogue of ov er 30 songs, the public can visit XPACE during NUIT BLANCHE (Saturday, October 1st) from 8pm and sing along to their favourite tunes while enjoying the visual treatment of these songs by selected artists and designers. Echoing the current and pervasive adaptation and transformation of on-line content, K-Town irreverently takes pre-existing popular songs and asks artists to remix and respond to them using a variety of visual means.

If you are not able to make it on October 1st, don’t worry you haven’t missed the show. XPACE will host K-Town until Friday October 7th!

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Lithopuncture: A Sacred Space Healing

by Master Sunjye Ford and Annette Shaffer

location: Queen St. West and Soho

Since it’s inception, Master Sunjye Ford has balanced rocks at Queen and Soho, and Nuit Blanche will be no exception.  Along with Master Sunjye’s balances, Annette Shaffer will perform Shamanic Egg Cleansings and egg balancing.

http://sunjye-blog.blogspot.com/

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Meditation for the Nation

presented by Sara Gartlan

location: Trinity Bellwoods Park

Take a mental break from the from the frantic streets of Nuit Blanche and join Sara Gartlan’s meditating raccoons to rejuvinate yourself for the rest of your night. These familiar figures will be glowing from within, surrounded by cushions, and inviting you to join them in their meditations.

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Morpheous’ Bondage Extravaganza

by Morpheous

location: 442A Dufferin St.

A hidden exhibition located in Zone C at 442-A Dufferin St (near Queen,) Morpheous’ Bondage Extravaganza is home to one sleepless night of over 80 performers and rope bondage enthusiasts from across Canada, the US and Europe. This will be the largest public bondage art event in the world, with live DJs and web streaming.  This walk-through demonstration (for grown-ups only) is meant to demystify the experience that so many people privately engage in, live for the public and in person. The passion behind the eroticism of rope, and the connection among those involved is a form of living art where we truly see dynamics of relationships and the beauty of vulnerability.

lordmorpheous.com

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Night Light

by Gregory Hughes

location: 36 Chambers Artist Studio, 1266 Queen St. West, back entrance

8:00 – late

An installation/multimedia/sculpt ure that will attempt to give viewers a warm feeling on a cold dark night, bringing back memories of childhood and the blissful oblivious happiness of early years.

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Nuit Blanche Chip Music Mega Show

performances by jefftheworld, DJ Eastern Block, .EXE, Deadbeatblast, Arisuki, Koala Kids, and more

location: in front of old city hall, 100 Queen St. West

Numerous musicians will be collaborating to perform music that they’ve written to be played on a series of antiquated sound-chips.  You’ll hear a lot of familiar blips doing unfamiliar things.  It’s a hodge podge of modern music genres through the lens of  child-hood of low bit gaming.  The concert will last all night. and will feature numerous musicians. Anyone who shows up with chiptune music will be invited to do some open mic stuff.

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Nuit Blanche Open House

presented by Wicked Club

location: 1032 Queen St. West

7:00 pm – 11:00 pm Open house (free), 11:00 pm – 4:00 am Party (non-members welcome, regular cover rate)

Wicked Club is celebrating Toronto’s erotic art scene by opening their doors for a sexy Nuit Blanche party, featuring erotic art, live body painting, aphrodisiac appetizers (see a sample of the menu at www.wcabaret.ca), and all-night entertainment.

www.wickedclub.com

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Nuit Blanche Renegade Parade

by The Rothko Institute and the Renegade Nuclear Physics Laboratory

location: Roaming, departing at exactly 10:03 from the ROM crystal

Thank you for volunteering to have your atomic structure torn asunder. Because of your sacrifice we will be able to initiate a nuclear fusion reaction which will provide a cheap abundant source of energy for generations or we’ll destroy the Solar System.

During the experiment, you will be asked to do one or all of the following tasks so please ensure that you are wearing comfortable clothing and are rested.
-Dance like a fucking maniac
-Increase the orbital speed of your subatomic particles
-Throw your hands in the air like you just don’t care
If you feel uncomfortable with any of these tasks then perhaps this research opportunity is not right for you.

The experiment will begin at EXACTLY 10:03pm at the ROM Crystal (South-West corner of University/Bloor) so we ask that you arrive BEFORE 10pm or it may leave without you. For location updates after departure, follow us on twitter @nbrptoronto.

Because last year the parade got shut down early, we’ve secured a beautiful super secret location so your adventure can continue all night! After rocking the streets, grab your lover, your friends or some beautiful strangers and enter the fusion chamber for an atomic collision that you’ll never forget. $10, all-ages w/ 19+ area (all proceeds go to the parade expenses).

During the experiment please abide by all laboratory rules. The parade can easily get shut down and so we all have to work together to ensure it runs smoothly.
1) Stay off the truck. Only lab technicians may be on the vehicle.
2) Stay on the sidewalk and be polite to drivers and pedestrians who are inconvenienced by our presence.
3) Don’t do anything stupid.
4) If you see someone doing something stupid, kick their ass.
5) If there’s a bright flash on the truck do not look directly at it or you may be vaporized.

Footage from last year’s Parade-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XD-5BaFYUk

Renegade Nuclear Physics Lab-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z62XidWlSd4

For more information or to get involved, please contact nbrptoronto@gmail.com

Again, thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

The Renegade Nuclear Physicist

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Nuit Blanche Scavenger Hunt

by T.O. Light the Night

location: Hunt begins at 221 Yonge St. (at Shuter)

7:00 – 1:00, $10 registration fee per person

One night, from sunset to sunrise. A celebration of art and diversity in the city of Toronto. An EPIC interactive Scavenger Hunt to win fabulous prizes and raise awareness and funds for Second Harvest. Come experience Nuit Blanche like never before! Join the hunt by gathering a group of friends (4 per team) and paying a $10 registration fee per person. On Oct 1st at 7:00pm, bring your team, a non-perishable food donation, your online registration confirmation email, and a smart phone to Hunt HQ (221 Yonge St, Toronto, ON) and let the games begin! All proceeds go to Second Harvest.

T.O. Light the Night is a social movement which promotes social responsibility and civic engagement through artistic expression.

www.tolightthenight.com/

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Nuit Blanche: Unofficial Art at 263

by Unofficial Art at 263

location: 263 Adelaide St. West

263 Adelaide St W is a work/live building in the heart of the Entertainment District, filled with photographers, painters, designers, cinematographers, musicians and artists. We are opening our space during Nuit Blanche, hosting a variety of exhibitions including performances, soundscapes, projections, performance art, installations and performance art going all night all over the creative mecca that is 263.

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=277917305561441

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Parachute Bomb

by David Carey, Joel Dmitruk, and Caitlin Mullin

location: Unexpectedly throughout Yonge Street, University of Toronto, Queen’s Park, Grange Park, David Pecaut Square, and other public spaces

As early as humanity could look upward, we have dreamed of flight. Rather than an ascent into the sky, though, flight can be more simply conceived of as the prevention of falling. The parachute was first imagined in the 1470s as a cross bar frame attached to a conical canopy designed to slow descent through the air. In fact, the word parachute emerged from two much older terms, para (“defense against”) and cheoite (“a fall”).

Parachutes have also made their way into the imaginations and playtime routines of children.
Parachute Bomb will fill the night with unexpected playtime – echoing our early dreams of flight. Watch for a roaming parachute bombing down on Yonge Street, University of Toronto, Queen’s Park, Grange Park, David Pecaut Square, and other public spaces.

Track the parachute bombers on Twitter @ParachuteBomber

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Sidewalk Salsa Does Nuit Blanche

by Sidewalk Salsa

location: the ROM

8:00 pm – 12:00 am

Continuing our tradition of kicking off Nuit Blanche in caliente Latin style, Sidewalk Salsa will once again host our very last event of the 2011 season at Nuit Blanche. Drop by any time from 8 p.m. until midnight (or when the speaker runs out of juice!) for an evening of salsa, bachata, merengue, and cha-cha. (Zouk, blues, and west coast by request.) Bring your friends! FREE beginner lessons available through the evening.
facebook.com/event.php?eid=120660911370009

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Start What You Finish

by Zenna Davis Jones, Maaor Ziv, and Eddy Be

location: the Ice Cream Cafe, 488 Queen St. West

12:00 am – 3:00 am

Admission: minimal entrance fee of buying a 2$ ice cream cone

An interactive low octane theater piece that will incorporate the audience.

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Stick ‘Em Up

by Teeth

location: various locations

The city is full of missed opportunities for beautification. Utilitarian objects, whitewashed walls, advertisements, and more, clog our visual landscape with the uninspiring. Local street artist Teeth is giving people a chance to change this! Thirty baggies of delightful hand-made stickers will be distributed to thirty people to put up as they see fit. By sunrise the city will be peppered with hundreds of little, whimsical pieces of joy.

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Studio 561 Presents: Le Blanche

by Studio 561

location: Studio 561, 561 Bloor St. West, upstairs

A group exhibit featuring fine art from some of Toronto’s most compelling artists.

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Tecolote

by The Knit Cafe

location: The Knit Cafe, 1050 Queen St. West

The Knit Café is happy to be creating a very special display to coincide with the Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche festivities this year. Since the inception of Nuit Blanche in Toronto the Knit Cafe has developed art installations to showcase the artistry and creativity involved in knitting and fibre arts. The Knit Café is not your typical yarn store. It is a gathering place for skilled crafts people and novice knitters alike. This year Iwona Gontarska and Kristin Ledgett, of the Knit Café are assembling the forces of this community to create this one of a kind knit exhibition.  For months now, knitting needles and busy hands have been making what will eventually be known as “Tecolote”.

Tecolote is the Spanish word for owl.  Knitted owls have become a mascot for the Knit Cafe since the 2009 Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche exhibition Cirques des Hiboux (Owl Circus). In this knit installation hand knit owls showed off theirmoves as acrobats and trapeze artists and took turns on carnival rides.  This year the owls are ready for new kinds of amusements.  They will be gathering to celebrate the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos).  A parliament of owls will be on the guest list and dressed appropriately for some spooky fun. The objective of this exhibition is to engage the imagination and to entertain the viewer.  It also strives to challenge established expectations of knitting and craft.

Tecolote will be staged in the Knit Cafe on Queen St. West window on October 1at 6:59pm.  The Knit Cafe will be open all night long in conjunction with the Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche hours.  The Knit Cafe’s community of knitters, many of whom have been instrumental co-creators of this installation, will be on hand. The late night hours will be passed with knitting.  As always the public is encouraged to come in, ask questions, and explore.  They can even join in and knit!  Coffee will be served till the sun comes up.

The Tecolote exhibition will continue throughout the month of October and close November 11.

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The Art Jam Project

by Sound Selecta

location: the south-east corner of Trinity Bellwoods Park

The Art Jam project brings together art, music and technology into an interactive music making application for the iPad and iPhone, where the art controls music and the music controls the art.

Come by our installation to jam out with our app, meet the visual artists and listen to some of our featured musicians, including live beat boxing, acoustic guitar as well as dub reggae and dubstep DJ sets.

soundselecta.com

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The Eros Boulevard Cabaret – Live at the Rivoli

by Sion Irwin-Childs

location: the Rivoli, 334 Queen St. West

9:00 – 4:00

Sion Irwin-Childs, as Artistic Director, has created the site specific “Eros Boulevard Cabaret – Live at the Rivoli” to be performed on Nuit Blanche as part of the Queen St. West B.I.A.’s “Out of Site” program. Eros Boulevard Cafe is an interdisciplinary live performance featuring a blend of music, dance, comedy and short films. It will take place on the iconic yellow fenced Rivoli patio.

All film shorts, dance works and comedy sketches will be limited to six minutes in length. The performances will be juxtaposed, contrasted, matched and melded into an unyielding, unstoppable locomotive of culture, fun and entertainment.

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The Never Ending Consumption (That is Conversely Consuming Us)

by Greg Anka

location: various locations

Abstract paintings by California-based artist Greg Anka. “My approach to art is philosophical rather than cerebral. I consider it a process of transformation. An image exists within me which must be expressed. I allow an opening through which the image may move from my soul to my mind for expression. The process of making the image can often be painful, like pulling thorns, as I pace back and forth like a caged animal until the opening occurs. In development, the art goes through considerable changes. Where I start is totally different from where I finish. There is something of the arbitrary evolution to life and my art. How I see things and how I react to them without the over-reaching fear and loathing of most people that cling desperately to notions and ideas that aren’t their own. Nature and the Cosmos and Galaxies unknown are all basically made of the same principle, which is that creations are made by those elements that are there at that moment, that come together by chance and circumstance and if the timing is correct form into a new and different entity.”

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The Shittiest Show on Earth: Something Sweaty This Way Comes

by the t-1000 collective

location: 13 Ossington Ave

8:00 – 2:30

Come one! Come all! Step right up and be amazed by the Shittiest Show on Earth: Something Sweaty This Way Comes

Under our Big Top awaits a plethora of exotic fauna and culturally irrelevant phenomena: camels, acrobats, clowns, rhinos, hippos, ponies, zebras, ostriches, dwarves with umbrellas, elephants, the fat man, lions, tigers, seals, bears, more clowns, and poodles- all having questionable interactions with each other along with a ton of red and white stuff and curated performances that will make you ponder the question “really?”.

“Something Sweaty This Way Comes” is simultaneously a huge potential fire hazard and a tasteless, erotic homage to the circus, sexual perversion and degeneracy. It is our fourth epic installation with visual, audio and performance components and continues our artistic mandate and cultural mission to provide a nocturnal oasis and alternative to the originally interesting but rapidly disintegrating and poorly curated cultural disaster known as Nuit Blanche.

Witness our menagerie of sexual oddities and overrated, sad exploits presented to the city of Toronto, not to educate or engage an illiterate and ignorant public with the dreary notion of contemplating the importance of irrelevant art, but rather in order to titillate the curious, defend the degenerate, and repel the fainthearted. Take respite from the maddening crowds of artistic tourists and indulge the senses in a hedonistic and intentionally pathetic visual and performance spectacle the likes of which will never be seen again on this planet or any other.

And then at 2:30 depart our ring intoxicated and see if the art outside has gotten any better, or just go fuck someones ring in an alley or something.

Your hosts for this dark celebration of degeneracy are:
Mulderious the silent and mysterious masked ringmaster of carnal desire,
Johan the limber homosexual beastmaster and licentious nymphomaniac,
Shanna, the mutated and lustful dancing six boobed woman,
and Miss Margottia and Alexis, the fantastical transvestite musical duo.

marvel at performances that include but are not limited to:
-the erotic lyrical convulsions of Otis the dancing sex goddess,
-the lewd and heart wrenching dramatic utterances from “Suddenly Last Summer” by Maude the voluptuous bearded Irish lady,
-the tragic exploits of Romulisa and Marissa the perverted, incestuous, foul mouthed Siamese twins,
- the dark and occasionally accurate alcohol induced visions of Indian prophetess and healer Sometimes Susan, along with the inexplicable actions of her hyperactive humping canine familiar Vincent Price
-daring feats of strength and flexibility from Aladdin the hairy Arabian strong man,
-the lustful shenanigans and astute golf advice of Mentalpaws the werewolf and recovering lesbian,
the Jamican  gyrating mad woman Dirty Deb,
and Jojo the drunkest girl in the world.
and there are rumours that Roberto, the Colombian demon will be making a visit to trash the bar and teach people high German.

the show starts at 8 and continues until 230. Absolutely no children in any form allowed. Seriously. Like none.
Please come and enjoy yourself.
Face makeup will be available.

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Ties That Bind

by Bovine Sex Club

location: Bovine Sex Club, 542 Queen St. West

9:00 – 4:00

Admission: $5 for guys, girls free

CJ Sleez
cjsleez.com

Fallon Bowman
fallonbowman.com

The Leslie Spits
http://www.soundcloud.com/thelesliespits

Installation Name : Ties That Bind
Installation Curator : Darko
Artists Participating : Paul Buceta, Richard Northwood, Yanki Yuksel and Darko

Girls get in FREE

4AM license

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Toastmastergeneral’s Laboratory of Time and Space Presents: “ARE” Sign Unveiling Intensive Seminar in Sight

by ARE Gallery and Toast

location: ARE Gallery, 1581 Dundas St West

8:00 – late

ARE Gallery is an incredibly chillin, unusually comfortable, experimental new gallery located on Dundas one block West of Dufferin. Catering to showcasing emerging artists and hosting events of all sorts, ARE Gallery is poised to be a hotbed for inspiration, good vibes and culture.

To celebrate their grand opening, ARE Gallery will be unveiling their gallery-front sign: a mural by artist Toast.

facebook.com/aregallery
toastmastergeneral.deviantart.com

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UBS Delivery

by Ur Best Self

location: various locations

UrBestSelf is serendipitous delivery system for channeling metacognitive neuroplacitic reminders. Our service offers you a tangible reminder of what Ur Best Self would say by helping you envision what what it might look and sound like, all provided in shiney little capsules that will be delivered throughout the Nuit Blanche zones.

Our delivery service is devoted to helping the receiver to negate negative self-talk, to allow for clear, critical observation of their thinking. Where did this idea come from? Please see our web page to watch videos and learn more about how you can shape your plastic brain. No one can change your mind but you. Play nice with brain, why don’t ya?

We believe strongly that there is a voice within each of us capable of  offering love, wholly and unconditionally for your authentic, imperfect, beautiful self.

http://www.urbestself.org/

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Working Wonder Illustrations: The Zoo

by Jessica Del Sole

location: Trinity Bellwoods Park

Visit an outdoor installation where you can find an octopus, a flamingo, swans, and dragonflies hanging out in the park. Come and walk around with them and enjoy the night.

jessicadelsole.blogspot.com

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What Are You?

by West Salon and Spa and Community Arts Ontario

location: West Salon and Spa, 1188 Queen St. West (next to the Gladstone)

What does ‘mixed race’ mean to you?

Our empty silhouettes of heads need your words. Tell us what you think ‘mixed race’ means and we will write each definition in a different colour inside the solid outline of our heads. Your submission can be anonymous or signed. We will loop all of your answers continuously from sunset on October 1st, 2011 to sunrise on October 2nd, 2011. Visitors will be able to read your definition and add their own.

Email info@westsalonandspa.com with what ‘mixed race’ means to you.

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Want to spend a solid 12 hours appreciating art but don’t want to fight Mr. Sandman? Here are some events happening before official Nuit Blanche that will help you warm up for the night’s events.

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DAPS ALL AGES VII: Loom, Isla Craig, Mirror Phase + Grapefruit Colour

by the Kapisanan Philippine Center for Arts and Culture

location: 167 Augusta (Kensington Market)

2:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Admission: $7 at the door, free for 12 and under
Come wrapped up and wooly! Let’s celebrate the changing of the seasons, in the time between moons. This all-ages shin dig is the perfect warm-up for a night of art and culture.

>>>>>>Loom<<<<<<
http://www.myspace.com/owleyescrowsfeet

>>>>>>Isla Craig<<<<<<
http://www.myspace.com/islacraig

>>>>>>Mirror Phase<<<<<<
http://www.myspace.com/mirror.phase

>>>>>>The Grapefruit Colour<<<<<<
http://www.myspace.com/thegrapefruitcolour

www.dapsallages.blogspot.com

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Medicate: Nuit Blanche Pre-Party

by Monomachina

location: the Drake Hotel,1150 Queen St. West

Thursday, Sept 27, 10:00 – 2:30, $5 admission

Charge up for Nuit Blanche with a good dose of Medicate – a night of house, breaks and electronic beats presented by the Monomachina collective, a group of Toronto artists pushing the boundaries of electronic music through live P.A. performances, DJs and visuals.

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Rummaging Through the Junk Drawer: Paintings by Maki

by Jon Maki

location: Sublime Espresso, 219 Augusta Ave.

3:00 pm – 7:00 pm

A select collection of paintings from Jon Maki. The show runs all month.

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A TWO DAY EXTRAVAGANZA OF ART AND MUSIC