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Photo of the Montreal edition of Mille Femmes from Galerie [sas]'s Picasa album.
Consider the first editions of Toronto's two major multidisciplinary arts festivals: Nuit Blanche 2006 was a stunning success, a magical playground that revived the spirit of the blackout and provided a moving conclusion to Let's All Hate Toronto; Luminato 2007 was a mixed bag of highfalutin performances not attended by anyone you know (with the exception of the George F. Walker plays), along with a dazzling light show and some cool sculptural installations in three downtown buildings—Christopher Hume called it "more a businessperson's notion of what an arts festival should be than the thing itself" and a "top-down exercise in arts manipulation, an attempt to impose a festival on the city because it's good for us and the bottom line."
Nuit Blanche 2007 suffered a sophomore jinx, with many people agreeing that it was too overcrowded and corporatized, kind of a city-wide Taste of the Danforth. But then Nuit Blanche couldn't have gone anywhere but down. Luminato, on the other hand, hasn't set an impossibly high standard for itself, and, as such, its second edition could conceivably improve upon the first. But very little of the programming for Luminato 2008 (June 6-15), announced at a press conference at the Jane Mallett Theatre Wednesday afternoon, gives cause for confidence that the organizers are interested in creating a more "organic" festival, to use Hume's term.
Here are the pieces that give us hope:
- Mille Femmes, by French artist Pierre Maraval, will be a photo exhibition at BCE Place consisting of "one thousand portraits of women active in arts and culture in Toronto," five hundred of them emerging, five hundred established.
- StreetScape, in partnership with the AGO, will turn blank walls around the city into "monumental canvasses for street art....graffiti writers, street art poster-makers, wall-painters, and boundary-pushing multimedia artists."
Here are the events that dash some of that hope:
- Queen West Celebration: "After Yorkville’s summer of love, Toronto’s artist scene moved south to Queen Street West. The 1970s saw the birth of an era best know for New Wave and Punk music, a movement centred on Queen West’s iconic music venues, Grange Park, and the Ontario College of Art and Design. Join Luminato as we celebrate the original era of Queen West cool through music, style, and visual art."
Because of course there's no contemporary music or culture on Queen that could use some institutional support. This, and last year's hippie trip in Yorkville, are reminiscent of that curious phenomenon whereby colonizers romanticize and pine for those "uncontaminated" indigenous cultures which they themselves have destroyed. "Queen West is the natural successor to Yorkville," proclaimed Luminato CEO Janice Price.
- Light on Your Feet: "Stretch your legs and dance Light on Your Feet over a series of evenings at Yonge-Dundas Square. The public square will transform into a huge open-air dance hall, where live bands will take the beat to the street, celebrating different musical genres each night. Early-evening lessons in fancy footwork will be offered, making these the ultimate dance parties for all ages and skill levels."
In her explanation, Price referenced swing, big band, and flamenco. Not that we're necessarily calling for indie-pop and house music, but this sounds a lot like the Sunday evening concerts at Mel Lastman Square—and at least there you're not boxed in by video ads.
Thankfully, more programming will be announced over the coming months as it's confirmed (including a likely collaboration with the Toronto International Film Festival Group), and so it's still very possible that Lumina2 could shape up to be a festival that's relevant to a greater segment of the people who live in this city. And as long as they shy away from hawking us bank cards, they'll still have a big leg up on Nuit Blanche 2.
Photo of London street art courtesy of Luminato.
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Jonathan, is there anything in this city that you like? Anything at all??! Enough with the bitching and moaning about events that are trying to do some GOOD in this city (even if they're *gasp* a little corporate).
Reminiscent of that curious phenomenon whereby colonizers romanticize and pine for those "uncontaminated" indigenous cultures which they themselves have destroyed.
You have to love the recurring theory/fact/hey, facts which fit my theory! triplet.
But I think it's reminiscent of something far simpler: romanticizing -- and, hey, celebrating! -- the past.
If you wanted to flip the heroicizing humanities-speak around, I guess you could call it a reversioning of the past to reroot alternative histories to effect a memorializing of place that overcomes corporate erasure.
You know, that kind of thing. Heterotopias. Fields of force suddenly made visible. Ain't it grand? Point is, I doubt very much that Janet Price killed the Queen West arts scene. Nor those organizing Luminato. Nor their cohort, except in a terribly reductionist vision of Those Who are With Us vs. The Enemy. 'Cause, itchy google fingers to the donation list notwithstanding, Luminato isn't really quite the same thing as transnational retailers, now, is it? Because of course there's no contemporary music or culture on Queen that could use some institutional support. Cheerier version: let's all telephone the Luminato folks and ask them to involve contemporary music and culture on Queen in this effort! Let's report back what they have to say right here on Torontoist!
Light on Your Feet sounds wonderful! Thank god they aren't going to play any of that damn noise that young people are listening to these days.
Definitely right, Luminato can only go up from the pile of shit it was last year.
Jonathan, is there anything in this city that you like?
Yes. Here is a non-exhaustive list: the Toronto Zoo, the Toronto Islands, Riverdale Farm, the Scarborough Bluffs, High Park, the Bloor Cinema, Cinematheque Ontario, Hot Docs, the Fringe Festival, Harbourfront Centre, Now Magazine, Eye Weekly, Torontoist, the Spacing Wire, the TPSC, Illegalsigns.ca, the Worldwide Short Film Festival, the Toronto Psychogeography Society, Mill Street Organic, the Hidden Cameras, Final Fantasy, Matias, DJ Cyber-Rap, Laura Barrett, Bruce McDonald, Don McKellar, Darren O'Donnell, Newmindspace, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Annex, Kensington Market, the Beaches, Chinatown.
If you wanted to flip the heroicizing humanities-speak around...
I was actually going for social sciences-speak.
Luminato isn't really quite the same thing as transnational retailers, now, is it?
Now is a good time to point out that Luminato and L'Oréal are Partners In Creativity.
I'm sorry to get on your case Jonathan, but Mill Street Organic is a terrible, terrible beer. I wanted to like it, but it tastes like a gum infection.
I have to agree with Karen on the Mill Street Organic.
I third the thumbs down on Mill Street Organic. Their coffee beer is also rank, and really, not so good an idea in the first place.
mill st. tankhouse is hands down their best beer.
I was actually going for social sciences-speak.
You're off, then -- better load up on those courses next semester.
Asked: 'Cause, itchy google fingers to the donation list notwithstanding, Luminato isn't really quite the same thing as transnational retailers, now, is it?
Answered: Now is a good time to point out that Luminato and L'Oréal are Partners In Creativity.
Predictability points: well, a bunch.
It's easy to dump on those who, yuck, try to get sponsors? Put themselves out there? Ohmigod? Still, mistaking Luminato for its sponsors is, like, so not on. Light on Your Feet sounds wonderful! Thank god they aren't going to play any of that damn noise that young people are listening to these days. Oh, fer REAL! I am so SICK of the Toronto entertainment scene ignoring the underserved 18-35 demographic. It is time they stopped catering to FOGEYS and YOUNG KIDS and started finally paying attention to the ... oh, wait.
Jonathan, is there anything in this city that you like?
Hee. Yeah, that was a bit dumb -- it's not because you sneer at the uncool that you can't be upwardly hipster! Indeed, they go together: if there was no cool, after all, how could you possibly sniff at the un-?
A 2007 Luminato event, Winnipeg Director Guy Maddin's Brand Upon The Brain, was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen and heard! Unforgetable images on screen (the Elgin Theatre) - composer Jason Staczek's LIVE orchestration and original score knocked my socks off, not to mention the LIVE foley and sound effects crew, on stage narration and a few words by the film maker. Oh, and it was also affordable - I managed to get tickets at the box office an hour before showtime. Nuit Blanche did suck bigtime however!
I've never had a gum infection, but it sounds like I would enjoy one (but not at much as the tankhouse).