Nuit Blanche? More Like Nuit Bland.

Nuit Blanche: Toronto’s annual overnight art fest is an evening where people explore the streets and take in the abstract creations of both local and international artists. While the event still stands tall as one that makes the city unique, the 2013 show lacked the usual charm and finesse, to say nothing of the decline of manners in attendees.

Event Organization: Semantics were less than fluid – the lack of closed roads left the sidewalks like a sluggish game of sardines. Information booths were scarce, and the printed guidebooks ran out by 11 o’clock, instead patrons were encouraged to use the event website, therefore relying on data from their handheld devices. Interesting that suddenly, a free event becomes a for-profit racket for Rogers and Bell, and those who cannot afford smartphones or data plans were shit out of luck. Downloading the cost of information to the patron defeats the purpose of the event being free, and it doesn’t show how “green” the event co-ordinators are, just how cheap. Saving the trees is a lame, second string excuse for being ill-equipped to actually assist your countless tired, lost and confused guests.

City Travelling & Exploration: People’s lack of respect for each other, let alone the art on display was obvious. Street harassment was the norm for the evening, seen with the frequency of shoving matches both on the subway and in the streets.

Mob mentality was in action at Nathan Phillips Square’s Crash Cars exhibit. The display was one of 10 art projects commissioned specially for this year’s event, combining industry with simplicity by having two unmanned cars orbiting each other, symbolizing the cynical nature of power and media. At around 2 a.m., spectators took it upon themselves to kick down the fences surrounding the art and rush the vehicles. The crowds consisted of some teens but mostly grown-ass adults, hundreds of witnesses cheering on the disruption as if it were a hockey brawl. This was not intellectually rebellious, nor a constructive way to break barriers between art and viewer. This was simply ruining someone else’s hard work because the observer lacks the creativity or brains to express themselves on their own.

Crash Cars, before and after the uninvited audience participation. You stay classy, Toronto.

The Art: A unique aspect of this year’s event was the use of particular themes to organize the evening’s submissions, such as the PARADE exhibition along University Avenue, comprised of a series of mobile sets and designs built to mimic parade floats. While this exhibit helped streamline the movement of attendees, it also appeared to be compensation for the fact that University was one of the few road closures.

Many submissions from artists this year involved sculpture and look-but-don’t-touch, and elements such as participation and even live performance were a rarity. While hanging hundreds of colourful plastic bags from a ceiling may be a labor of love, it’s difficult to justify waiting half an hour in line to look at it.

The use of public space for Nuit Blanche is intended to encourage participation, employ multiple senses and learning styles, and to avert the silent and stuffy experience of traditional art galleries; but 2013’s night of art fell short of that characteristic with much to see, but little to do.

Highlights from this year were those whom remembered that the point and purpose of the evening is interactivity, such as the tactile beauty of Paper Orbs, in which visitors were invited to dismantle a giant origami statue by taking away ornate paper crowns, which were seen decorating many of the attendee’s heads throughout the night, the spirited performances of (X)Static Clown Factory, and the Clothesline Canopy project hanging 5,000 socks to bring visibility to the homeless in Toronto.

Overall: Attending the late-night hours of the event meant fewer crowds, but increasing numbers of artists have lost sight of the fact that event is supposed to be all night. Intimate and small-scale works of art are just as valid as big-budget grandiose, but too few artists actually took the size and scale of the event into account when devising their projects, resulting in virtually no balance between supply of art and demand for it. An art project meant to be viewed by 20 people at a time is not only impractical at an event with a projected attendance of 20,000, but defeats the purpose of a whole event dedicated to fine arts that are accessible to the general public.

Most of this year’s pieces of art were enjoyable and thoughtful, with many of the artist’s statements written clearly without resorting to esoteric “art-speak”, but little was memorable and most fell victim to the “Mona Lisa Syndrome”, where the hype leading up to an experience outweighs the actual experience. You’ve done better, Nuit Blanche.