Artist: Nadine Valcin
Toronto, 401 Richmond – adjacent to B104, Lower Level – October 1st, 2022 – sunset to sunrise
Le Labo will once again be part of Nuit Blanche Toronto!
Emergence by Nadine Valcin was unanimously chosen by the Labo artistic committee. Nadine Valcin is an award-winning filmmaker and media artist.
Emergence is a silent 2-channel video installation created to counter the violence of blackface in its representation of Blackness. This piece re-asserts the beauty of Blackness and challenges the reductive nature of contemporary Canadian blackface through extreme close-ups of Blackness in all its diversity. Shot in slow motion, the opening images of Black bodies pressed against glass alludes through their distortion to the constraining conditions that put them in stereotypes as well as their struggle to break free. In these pandemic times, the piece takes on a new significance as a metaphor for what we are experiencing, especially as racialized bodies.
The concept of Nuit Blanche first came to life in 2002 in Paris and has since been reproduced in various cities around the world like Rome, Montreal, Bruxelle, Seoul or Toronto. For an entire night, the city will celebrate contemporary art in various forms. It is expanding to include exhibitions in Etobicoke and North York, in addition to downtown and Scarborough, the long-awaited event features more than 150 artworks by local, national and international artists. Led by inaugural Artistic Director Julie Nagam, Nuit Blanche’s curatorial theme, The Space Between Us, invites artists to transform the city by creatively sharing stories about their connection to place while bridging cultures and connecting with communities and the environment.
Come see Emergence by Nadine Valcin at 401 Richmond Street West, adjacent to B104, Lower Level on October 1st, from 7pm to 7am.
Nadine Valcin
Nadine Valcin is a bilingual Canadian filmmaker of Haitian descent whose documentary and dramatic work deals with questions of race, language and identity. Her film Whitewash (2016), produced as part of an artist’s residency at Osgoode Hall Law School, examines slavery in Canada and its omission from the national narrative through the history of prominent families on Prince-Edward-Island. Her short film Heartbreak (2016), one of thirty finalists among 1700 submissions in the Toronto International Film Festival Instagram Shorts competition, is a tribute to Black mothers raising children in a society structured by anti-black racism.
Artis profile
This event is made possible by our funders: Ontario Arts Council, Heritage Canada and Toronto Art Council.
More info : www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche