The working logo for Nuit Blanche Ottawa-Gatineau 2013.
Nuit Blanche Ottawa has a new theme, new offices, and an expanding plan for its second-annual night of art on the streets — this year on the streets, literally.
Creative director Megan Smith says the theme for Nuit Blanche 2013 will be “Supernova!” Smith also revealed that the overnight festival, which is held annually in cities around the world but made its debut in Ottawa last fall, finally has its own offices, and will move into the St. Brigid’s Centre in the ByWard Market within days.
As previously reported, Nuit Blanche will expand into Gatineau this year, in addition to the main sites in the Market and other “roaming” sites. Both Gatineau and the Market will have “pedestrian zones,” in which artists can set up installations or performances on the streets.
Smith and the other directors chose “Supernova!” to build on last year’s debut theme, “Life is Beautiful.”
“We had to think about something that was going to have its own identity but build on that great community project last year, and we were thinking about something that makes a big bang, a big impact again,” Smith said. The theme was influenced by photographs of the city and elsewhere taken from the International Space Station by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and it also alludes to the capital’s highly networked nature, between Ottawa and Gatineau and outward to the world.
“We want to build those cultural ties between two spaces and see what we can make happen.We want to see participation projects, we want to see interventions, we want to see story-telling and things that network, or show the networks that already exist.”
Smith said the theme is not intended to limit the imaginations of artist.
“The whole concept of the Nuit Blanche theme to give a guide or framework, but they’re purposely broad. We want people to feel that they can come in from many, many angles and many disciplines, so it’s important that they can interpret it in many different ways.”
She expects more than the 140 applications submitted to the festival last year, which is a safe bet considering the widely acclaimed success of the debut. Thousands of people were out on the streets looking at art until near dawn the next day.
Nuit Blanche 2013 will be held Sept. 21. The current open call to artists closes May 27. More information is available at the new website with a long name, http://www.nuitblancheottawagatineau.ca
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