Nuit Blanche 2024 to focus on overcoming distance from one another

In its 18th year running, this year's Nuit Blanche will focus on the theme Bridging Distance, with more than 80 installations in public spaces across the city, showcasing the way we experience and overcome our distance from one another.

The all-night celebration will take place Oct. 5 to 6, starting at 7 p.m.all the way until sunrise at 7 a.m.

Nathan Phillips Square, often the place that attracts large crowds at the festival, will have no exhibits this year. Instead, the majority ofthe installations will be placed alongthe waterfront and south Etobicoke.

It's a change that Jeanne Holmes, the manager of Toronto's cultural events programming, says will hopefully encourage spectators to see that part of the city in an entirely new fashion.

"Because it happens at night, because it happens in the public realm and it kind of transforms public space, it feels almost like it's a dream. Like, did it really happen? Was this thing so magically transformed yesterday and then today it's just a sidewalk?"

Holmes says the best time to be at the festival is 4 a.m.,when things slow down. But incase you miss out on some of this year's exhibits, a dozen of them will stay up until Oct. 13.

CBC is a media partner of this year's festival. Here are some of the installations you can expect to illuminate Toronto's streets this weekend:

LUMI

A thread of soft inflated balls lit with different colours will loop along the Simcoe Wavedeck on Queens Quay.

Unlike typical artworklabelled"do not touch,"people are encouraged to sit on the brightly lit yoga balls and move them around to form new shapes.

65 SQM, the women-led collective behind the installation, describes it as an "urban intervention" meant to spur gathering and inspire spectators to interact with people they've never met before.

"If you move one piece, it ultimately affects the other piece. So even if you're strangers and one person is sitting and someone wants to move [the balls around], you have to interact with the stranger next to you," said Ye Sul E. Cho, one of the artists in the collective.

Curated by Syrus Marcus Ware, LUMI will be part of the Waterfront Central Exhibition named And the Spaces Between Us Smiled, inspired by the poem Stay on the Battlefield by Sonia Sanchez.

"I hope that when people are walking away from [the exhibition], they're propelled to want to connect with people in their life. They're propelled to want totalk to the person going home with them on the TTC about what's happening in their community," said Ware.

The Bright Web

Those making their way to Yonge-Dundas Square will be greeted by a nine-metrespider web, with textile sculptures and shadows that make up the shape of a large spider.

In a lively metaphor, the spider dances to sounds of ringtones and chat notification as it presents the world wide web as a simultaneous source of connection and distraction.

Roxanne Ignatius, the textile artist behind the project, says it's meant to tease our animal instincts.

"I want to make people look at their phones in a different way and playfully reinterpret that sense of being so tied to the sound of a notification," she says.

Black in Time

At Regent Park, you'll see the product of Donna Marie Paris and David Ofori Zapparoli's trip across the country, during which the collaborators gathered stories and portraits of Black Canadians, including an Alberta farmer and a former Olympian.

The stories will stretch over a large map placed at Daniels Spectrum centre, where spectators will be able hear each person's story through headphones or read them through a transcript.

The two say that throughout the process, they got to learn about Black communities with Canadian roots they've never known of.

"It's just mind boggling to me the amount of history that this country has that we don't know anything about," said Paris, a 7th-generation African Canadian.

"History is much more nuanced than what you read about in the history books," added Zapparoli.

Those coming to the installation will also get a chance to record the stories of how they ended up in Canada.

Dim Sum without Distance

As part of a cross-border collaboration, renowned artist Hung Keung selected Toronto performer Lauren Runions to fly to Hong Kong, where she learned how to make dim sum, a dish that means "touch the heart" in Chinese.

Runions later came up with an interpretive dance inspired by the process.

Five large-scale LED monitors will be spread throughout the heart-shaped Love Park by the waterfront, showing videos of her choreography.

"I hope people feel connected to how they consume food, who they eat it and share it with," said Runions.

Plan your trip

For those driving, the following road closures will be in place Saturday:

• Queens Quay W. (eastbound lanes)from Bathurst Street to Lower Spadina Avenue.

• Queens Quay E. (eastbound lanes) from Yonge Street to Lower Sherbourne Street.

• Dockside Drive from west of Knapp Lane west to Queens Quay E.(Richardson Street).

• Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive loop, between Colonel Sam Smith Park Road and Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive.

All roadways are expected to be open by 12 p.m. Sunday.

The TTC will also be diverting several routes in the area.