Moriyama’s Continuum is a project commissioned by Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, presented by LFDTLAB and The Toronto Public Library. Artists Avery Plewes, Wynn Holmes and Marie-Hélène Delorme created an immersive sound, video and performance installation and invited the Toronto public to become part of a collaborative creation in the soaring spaces of Toronto Reference Library.
On the surrounding walls of the library, projected videos featured people performing gestures inspired by the shapes found in the space. Using the footage and its soundscape as a guide, participants grasped hanging fabric panels, either to manipulate or to put on as costumes, and responded to and reinterpreted those movements. The video projections became a shared code as these simple choreographed movements transmitted from person to person.Together, these elements created a composition that evolved all night.
Architect Raymond Moriyama conceived of this library as a gathering place for creativity. In the months leading up to Nuit Blanche, hundreds of people from across Toronto worked with this project’s team of collaborators at other city libraries to craft the components. On the night of Nuit Blanche, their pieces were completed—by participants celebrating Moriyama’s iconic social space and Toronto’s public sphere.
