FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

D.A. Therrien (Phoenix, USA)
Light Installation
Beautiful Light: 4 LETTER WORD MACHINE (mock-up), 2009
Quartz light, electricity, switching systems, human performers
Photo credit:CGI: Dayvid LeMmon

Toronto pulls another all-nighter at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche

TORONTO, September 28, 2009 - Toronto is the perfect destination for art enthusiasts this weekend as nearly 500 national and international artists descend on the city, creating 130 projects for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche: the free, all-night celebration of contemporary art.  Returning on October 3, 2009 for its fourth year, the event will once again see the familiar discarded as public spaces across the city are transformed into an artistic playground from sunset to sunrise. One million people are expected to spend 12 enlightening hours discovering art in galleries, museums and unexpected places— from churches and grocery stores to chimney stacks and bus stations.

Jeff Koons’ infamous Rabbit Balloon will float high above spectators in the Toronto Eaton Centre. The Toronto Bus Depot will, for one night only, be the site of a caged, blindfolded grudge match between New York performance artist and fighter Sean ‘El Conquistador’ Leonardo and 20 other men in Battle Royal.

In the financial district, veteran conceptual artist and Order of Canada recipient IAIN BAXTER& will gather Toronto media personalities and celebrities to play an all-night version of the iconic real estate game, Monopoly, inside the Toronto Stock Exchange – with real money. At the Sheraton Centre, installation/performance artists FASTWÜRMS will transform the waterfall atrium, lobby and gardens into a zone of live tableaux and divinatory encounters through iTouch technology.

Liberty Village will feature a moving sound installation by Oswaldo Macià, Surrounded in Tears 2004-2009, a composition of a symphony of hundreds of crying voices. Canadian art legend Tom Dean’s Fire and Sausage: Small Mercies will create a ‘hobo utopia,’ a social sculpture made up of throngs of audience members clustered around fire barrels, vying for homemade sausages and hot chocolate made by Chef Jamie Kennedy.

In addition to the Exhibition by curators Gregory Elgstrand, Thom Sokoloski, Jim Drobnick, Jennifer Fisher and Makiko Hara, and the myriad Independent Projects produced by Toronto’s diverse arts community, the City has commissioned a large installation by internationally renowned artist D.A. Therrien to capitalize on the iconic infrastructure of Toronto City Hall.

Therrien‘s BEAUTIFUL LIGHT: FOUR LETTER WORD MACHINE will suspend four giant light sculptures in the air between City Hall Towers above Council Chambers, blasting an ever-changing array of four-letter word patterns all night long.

Survey results indicate Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2008 motivated more than 100,000 tourists to come to Toronto specifically to attend the event. The night generated $13.7 million in local economic impact – impressive results for a free event lasting only 12 hours. This year, visitors to Toronto will benefit from travel packages that include discounts on transportation, hotels and attractions.

Full programming details and travel packages are available at www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca.

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