2024 Theme & Artistic Team
Bridging Distance
The view of a horizon line. The time it takes to travel between point A and point B. The feeling we have when separated from a loved one. Zoom out for perspective. Take a closer look.
Distance – how do we understand it? How do we feel it? How do we reconnect and bridge the gaps?
For Nuit Blanche Toronto 2024, the City of Toronto invites artists and curators to present works that explore the multifaceted ways we experience and understand distance, while also reimagining how we can bridge distance through art. This is an opportunity for recalibration and to reconnect with our city, our world and each other, in public space.
Each piece will pose a question: How does the impact of distance manifest in our bodies, the city, and beyond? How might art physicalize and magnify different distances? How can art bring us closer to the thoughts, feelings and experiences of others outside of our immediate geographic, social and political realms? How might art play with distance to provide different perspectives and invite reconnection?
About the Artistic Director
Laura Nanni (she/her) is a renowned curator, producer and artist with over 15 years of experience in large-scale events, performance and public art. She is widely recognized for her successful leadership of initiatives focused on artistic experimentation, civic engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration. Nanni has held various roles including Artistic & Managing Director of SummerWorks (2016 to 2023); Interim Programming Supervisor for Nuit Blanche Toronto (2013 to 2015); Producer for Luminato Festival (2014 to 2015); Rhubarb Festival Director for Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (2010 to 2014); and Curator & Program Coordinator for HATCH mentorship and residency program at Harbourfront Centre (2008 to 2010). Her artworks and collaborations have been presented globally.
About the Curators
The Weight of Levity Exhibition Curator
Su-Ying Lee (she/her) is an independent curator. She has previously worked as Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Curator-in-Residence at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and Assistant Curator at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. Her projects have taken place across Canada, in Hong Kong, Mexico City and Quezon City (Metro Manila, Philippines). Su-Ying is also a writer of creative non-fiction and social criticism.
And the spaces between us smiled Exhibition Curator
Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware (he/him) is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist and assistant Professor at the School of the Arts, McMaster University. Using drawing, installation and performance, Syrus explores social justice frameworks and Black activist culture. Syrus’ recent curatorial projects include Zine Hall (McMaster University, 2023), That’s So Gay (Gladstone Hotel, 2016-2019), Re:Purpose (Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2014) and The Church Street Mural Project (Church-Wellesley Village, 2013). Syrus is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Canada and the Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism.
Cat’s Cradle Exhibtion Curator
Danica Pinteric (she/her) is a curator and writer based in Tkaronto/Toronto. She is the founder of Joys, an independent gallery based in the Wallace-Emerson neighbourhood in Tkaronto/Toronto. She has held positions at the Art Gallery of York University, Vtape and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Her writing has been supported by C Magazine, Forest City Gallery, Mendes Wood DM, Xpace, Pangée, Contemporary Art Gallery Association, DRAC Drummondville and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam among others.
