White Night Washout

The most illuminating cultural night of the year in Paris went by in a flash of light and colour, literally. Introduced seven years ago by Paris’s Deputy Mayor Christophe Girard, his aim was to create one artistic night annually, merging contemporary art with urban space. This year’s nocturnal festivities offered an array of events to choose from, in quantity and quality, to discover the mysteries and magic of the City of Light, at night.

This is Paris at its most artsy, and most baffling. For once she promised more than she delivered, offering too much in a short space of time within a realm of perplexing displays across the city. Puzzling projective expositions on historical monuments, museum gardens mysteriously glowing in light and mist, combined with colourful light presentations to music, all gave a different perspective of the city, but without clarity. It was a curious medley of international artists offering individual concepts of their own ‘Nuit Blanche’ but not letting us in on their secret.

The exposition ‘Going Through Walls’ at the Musee Carnavalet by Latvian artist Gints Gabran, promised a spooky feel with its theme of shadows and fog to produce a ‘thick screen of air’ enhanced by water sounds and the stillness of the night. Walking through this virtual misty doorway was quite fun, for all of three seconds it took, at which point you were ushered towards the exit.

Far more lucid was Henri Foucault’s light spectacle at Hotel Des Monnaies. Reminiscent of Paris’s dirty younger sister, Amsterdam and its Red Light District, the artist had each window lit up in a different color which changed to the tempo of the music, simple but effective.

Described by one writer as ‘New Year’s Eve with art’, 2008’s Nuit Blanche definitely needed some fireworks, or at least a few lanterns around the Louvre. Each year is different, and compared to last year’s magnificent light display at the pyramid and the spectacularly creepy exhibit at the house of Victor Hugo, which took you ‘on a strange journey between cloud, busts, and snakes’, this year’s White Night was missing something. With comparatively less on offer than in previous years, the expositions needed to be potent and enticing for the regular goer, yet instantly impressive for the Nuit Blanche virgins who attended.

Each person will have encountered a different White Night depending on the area chosen and time allowed. Those making the most of its sunset to sunrise agenda may have felt more satisfied, but those only able to have a taste of the unusual offerings may have been disappointed.

The one thing that all revelers would have had in common however, was the witnessing of the glorious City of Light bathed in a little more light and music than usual, and it’s a great excuse to go out and stay out late, to experience the wonderful if bewildering world that is French culture.