Nuit Blanche 2024 is back in Toronto on Oct. 5, flooding the city’s streets with unbelievable art, performances and activities from sunset to sunrise.
Back for its 18th year, the 2024 rendition of the all-night art festival is curated around the theme of “Bridging the Distance,” highlighting works that explore themes of travel, boundaries and overcoming the expanses — both physical and metaphorical — that divide us.
New this year, the festival will be expanding its footprint on the waterfront, where breathtaking works will populate both the water’s edge and Lake Ontario itself, paired with a brand-new event hub that’ll house performances, events and exhibitions.
While the festival is set to feature more than 80 works by local, national and international artists, here are a few of the ones you simply can’t miss.
Amphipoda Songs by Carolina Fusilier. Rendering by Adrian Kent via City of Toronto.
Amphipoda Songs
Head to the Spadina Wave Deck on Queens Quay to catch this larger-than-life work by Argentinian artist Carolina Fusilier, featuring floating sculptures of Amphipods, crustacean-like creatures that are said to have mysteriously gone extinct from Lake Ontario in the 1990s.
Coalescing Towards
Presented by Toronto Dance Theatre and choreographed by Italian Choreographer Michele Rizzo, the debut performance of this durational dance piece will see 15 dancers on stage for 12 hours straight, exploring repetition and unison through movement.
Lumi
Inspired by the simultaneous flow and connectedness of meandering rivers, this work is comprised of a chain of illuminated yoga balls running along the Simcoe Wave deck that respond to the participants who make contact with it all night long. It’s also a place to rest your feet, which is always an added plus.
We remembered you, too
An art piece on top of an art piece, this installation transforms Paul De Figueiredo and Jonathan Fung’s 1995 “Sundial Folly” sculpture at 25 Queens Quay into an immersive, psychedelic waterfront garden out of your wildest fantasies.
Metipso Portal
Connect with fellow human beings on the other side of the world by heading to OCADU and checking out this 12-hour two-way live broadcast with Metipso, Kenya, featuring a variety show, live performances and special guests.
I want to leave this Earth behind
Prepare to be immersed in a world unlike anything you’ve ever experienced, as Diana Lynn VanderMeulen, Stefana Fratila and Miriam Arbus bring breathtaking landscapes to life in a 40,000 square-foot multisensory immersive installation that takes over the old Toronto stock exchange.
I’ve come to find this place
This sculptural installation at Sherbourne Common explores “Surrealism, spirituality and sites of folklore across the Caribbean and its diaspora” by creating a series of free-standing houses composed out of galvanized metal, soundtracked to a telling of a contemporary legend that blurs the lines of time and distance.
Distance to Mars, 2024. Rendering by Manifesto Lab via City of Toronto
Distance to Mars
Ever look up at the sky and wonder how far, exactly, we are from Mars? This installation by Siqi Wang, Xinyue Gu and Yi Zhang will tell you exactly that, projecting on a large LED sign our real-time position relative to Mars, putting into perspective the closeness of all people down here on earth.
星星 (Sing Sing) Starfield
Head to the second floor of George Brown’s Waterfront Campus to be immersed in this interactive installation, where audience members can create sonic soundscapes by activating various stars on a large, colourful starfield.
Living Algae Cyborg
Ever wish you could communicate with non-human beings? With this installation at 401 Richmond, you can. Pass by this living, breathing microcosm of algae and ask it a question. Then, watch as it answers by transmuting the CO2 from your breath into air bubbles.
Continuous – Connected
Three glowing pillars representing the past, present and future are illuminated by glowing filament “roots,” as speakers play answers to the questions of “What made you? Who are you now? and who do you want to become?” contributed by viewers over the course of the night.
Apartment
Get an unprecedented window into the quotidienne lives, memories and experiences of people living in a dollhouse-like apartment building in this large-scale projected video project at Waterfront Promenade.
Sarah Keenlyside, Emmah Kiyimba, 7222 Miles, via City of Toronto.
7222 Miles
This collaborative work between Italian artist, Sara Keenlyside and LGBTQ2S+ Ugandan refugee, Emmah Kiyimba, lights up the night under the Gardiner Expressway, symbolizing Emmah’s journey from Uganda to Toronto.
Sky Mirage
Head to the Bentway to catch a real-life UFO in person. Ok, maybe it’s not actually an alien creation, but this work by Canadian artist Aaron Jones, featuring an airborne mirrored orb reflecting everything (and everyone) around it sure feels out-of-this-world.
Leleka
Representing the journeys of migrants between their old and new homes, this large, suspended papier mache stork — an Eastern European symbol of good luck and blessings — is covered in ncient Ukrainian symbols, emits a luminous ray of light from its chest and plays folk music.
#hopeandhealingcanada
Just one in a series of public works that have appeared at over 150 institutions, this project, which seeks to spark a dialogue about issues of displacement, decolonization and reconciliation, marked by its grand-scale knit and crocheted red-yarn installations is popping up at Pier 27.
Robert
A stunningly realistic illuminated anatomical being created by Tavares Strachan is suspended in front of the Billy Bishop Warehouses pays homage to the first African American astronaut, Major Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. while exploring his erasure from the national mythology surrounding of space travel following his death.
Maziar Ghaderi, Garden Light, 2024, via City of Toronto.
Garden Light: A Holographic Eden
You might not be able to physically step into the paradise depicted within the holographic walls of this video and live music project, which depicts blissful, sublime and fantastical scenes of ancestral gardens alingside soundscapes and music.
Snail-work (for the lake)
Historical marbling patterns sourced from Victorian books are recreated on the ground in colourful sand by Shannon Garden-Smith, who then encourages you to move through the sand, morphing and mixing up the patterns in your wake.
fraction of another sun
This interactive work by Canadian designer and artist, Kara Springer, features a series of double-sided light boxes that respond to the patterns of her breath, creating something that’s at once a durational performance and an art piece.
Arguing Signs
Be a fly on the wall of a heated disagreement between two street signs. You read that right — over the course of the night, two electronic traffic signs on Queens Quay will be updating to give the appearance of arguing with one another in this hilarious and utterly unique installation by Jon McCurley.
