Regina will host its first Nuit Blanche art festival in downtown on Saturday night. The free event runs from 7 p.m. until midnight around Victoria Park and the Scarth Street Mall.
The event originates in France and the idea has spread worldwide. Nuit Blanche has also taken place in Saskatoon for the past five years.
The inaugural Regina edition will feature around two dozen installations from 18 artists and five collectives.
“We have everything from virtual reality installations to projection mapping. We actually have quite a few artists that are doing performance art, we have film makers,” assistant project manager Jacinthe Chapados explained.
“All the art has a component of light to it. So we’re dealing with a lot of art that has a technological component.”
Much the art will be displayed in alleys, pathways and other venues you wouldn’t expect to see an installation.
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This includes filmmaker Ella Mikkola and her installation “Based on True Stories.” This will include images of a pioneer family standing in front of their home projected from above onto Scarth Street.
Originally from Finland, Mikkola said their artwork is heavily influenced by learning about Saskatchewan’s colonial past.
“This has been an interesting path for me with this work because I started to explore the history of the land through this work and my perspective, as a settler, a European white person living in this land, started to shift,” they said.
“The tone of the work started to shift and now it’s kind of more about that experience of me learning about it and experiencing some guilt and some of those negative feelings that I went through when I was working on this project.”
Other highlights Chapados mentioned include a rave for the ravens scarred off from Mosaic Stadium and an exercise bike/discoball hybrid people are welcome to ride.
“There’s some quirkiness to a lot of the exhibits. There’s a lot of different exhibits going up,” Chapados said.
“I think it’s fantastic for the city, and I hope there’s going to be a big turnout and people are going to come see all these great works,” Mikkola said.
In addition to the artwork, Nuit Blanche is also partnering with restaurants in the area, such as Famoso who are offering discounts during the festival.
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