Nuit Blanche Paris October 2011
This year to celebrate Nuit Blanche and the power and excitement involved in contemporary art festivals I produced a project based on site specificity which has the working title ‘take a photo’.
It was spontaneous and exciting – spur of the moment really. I was able to assemble the work within three days and booked my ticked for that weekend. So, it’s not surprising that when I got there – speaking no French, alone in Paris, with no clue of where anything was, and no plans for where I was going to sleep – I make a point to make friends. I met a woman named Magdelena – a hopeless romantic who smokes a cigarette after every good experience, as well as a Dutch man whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, and – combined, they assisted me to hang all of the work throughout the city and the duration of the night.
Below is a copy of the maps within the Nuit Blanche pamphlet, which both Magdelena and our Dutch counterpart marked out for me so that I could find my way back to each site and collect the artwork.
Overall, there were four signs to hang – each with a one meter length chain attached to a color disposable camera.
In the end, they went back to their hostel and I fell asleep in a church – getting locked in, which – when I woke up 5 hours later and realised I could not get out, made a French Priest shout words I can only speculate were a bit unholy. I had not planned to fall asleep for so long, and unfortunately, Â street art – if left for long enough, and not bolted down will inevitably be stolen. I lost two signs and four of the cameras. But the experience was a treasure in its self.
Heather Dalton 