Nuit Blanche 2013
Here in Montreal, we have a crazy artistic event that happens once a year. Sometime in late winter, the city decides on a day that art will be funded and businesses will keep their doors open all night long. With over a thousand city funded activities, there are more installations, DJs, films, educational events, productions, projections, and interactive artworks than you can ever hope to see in just 12 short hours.
One thing that always has been crazy for me as a new Montrealer, is how many lines people will patiently stand in to see something cool. Or even something not so cool. Every time you want to go into a dome, look into a box, go to the bathroom, get fries, you tend to stand in a lineup for at least 20 minutes, if not an hour. There's not much that the average Montrealer won't line up for.
The group of friends that I was with had decided to make a game out of standing in lines all evening. We would only go to the art installations that were closest to speakers, and we would proceed to have a wicked dance party until we got to the art. After doing this a number of times, a friend and I were joking about the fact that Montrealers would line up for anything if a line was present, even if they didn't know what they would see at the end.
To test this theory, an impromptu art piece was born.
As we had a fair amount of people, we decided to manufacture our own lineup to nothing. I stood at the front of the line illuminated by a light, and looking very serious. People approached me one by one and I leaned forward and whispered something very solemn to them.
Photo credit Owen Wiltshire
After about two minutes, I could watch strangers stop, gather, and join our line. I had a hard time keeping a straight face about it. A stranger never actually made it all the way to the front, probably due to the fact that we were all dressed in tutus and animal print, but it was a pretty funny exercise nonetheless.
Art!
What I'm listening to toady-