Is Nuit Blanche Really Only About Art and Sex?

In the days following the happening known as Nuit Blanche, I was somewhat disappointed by the limited commentaries on the event in the media. The nation's serious newspaper, the Globe and Mail, offered up only Russell Smith’s view that “Nuit Blanche rocks a new sexual vibe” (Globe Oct. 8). Like Smith I also think that contemporary art was not the major draw in compelling thousands of people out roaming the streets on a cool, wet October night.
Smith makes the claim that it was sexual curiosity that brought us out. For sure for some this might have been the lure, but what about the rest of us who just felt the need to get out, look at the city and each other regardless of the pretext? I think many of us don’t “get” contemporary installation art. What we do seem to understand is that we need the opportunity to look each other over in a relaxed and casual setting. The fact that Nuit Blanche occurs at night does inject some mystery into the encounter and this is where Smith detects the “sexual vibe”.
Let us not discount however that this is the most important place making event of the year. To repeat, art was not the goal only the excuse for so many of us. To survive as a society we need to be more aware of who we are living with and what have we built together? There are forces that are being built into our society that make meaningful contact increasingly difficult as Debord states we are “isolated individuals to be recaptured and isolated together”. By trivializing such events like Nuit Blanche as simple exercises in sexual voyeurism we lose sight of the bigger purpose. Simply “gaping at the city” will not address the issues of alienation and isolation in the community. Let us elevate the event and make it the occasion when we regain our sense of ourselves and of our place.

John Scheffel