Nuit Blanche Sneak Peek: Church Street

Although the official and somewhat incomplete Nuit Blanche site is still a little sparse on info about this year's "all-night contemporary art thing," details are starting to trickle out here and there on what we can expect to see for the city's second annual event.

Specifically, of all places, word from the Toronto Urban Exploration & Adventure meetup has it that Church Street will take on a "Nightless City" theme this year. The street "will be transformed into a theatrical set; a stage for street-walkers. Feverish red light will bathe the street, a mist will drift upon the pavement and Church Street will become a marvelous play, suggesting forbidden love and desires."

Those of you familiar with the area (present company included) might be scratching your heads wondering how that's different from any Friday or Saturday night after last call, but there's more! The project hopes to embody "the restrained yet carefree and celebrated environments that the 'floating world' afforded the tradition-bound shoguns during Edo (now Tokyo) in the 16th and 17th century. The 'floating world' or 'nightless city' was a refuge from the rigid, hierarchical society of feudal Japan."

Nuit Blanche 2007 will take place on September 29 from 7:03pm to Sunrise on the 30th. I think last year's event can safely be declared a huge success, and by all indications seen thus far, this year's will be a lot bigger both in terms of the number of exhibits and in its scale. Be sure to keep checking blogTO for more details and coverage as we get closer to this fall's Nuit Blanche.

Photo by blogTO Flickr pool contributor sevennine.