Nuit Blanche Taipei to take place Oct. 31 with art, performances

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) Taipei's Nuit Blanche arts festival will be held at the Taipei Expo Park on Oct. 31, featuring more than 30 art installations and 50 performances under the theme "Night Ka Shi," the city's Department of Cultural Affairs said Friday.

Now in its 11th year, the festival will feature large-scale installations, sound art and performances combining different art forms across the Yuanshan Natural Landscape Park, the Yuanshan and Xinsheng areas of the Taipei Expo Park, and surrounding areas near Minzu East Road and Qingguang Market, according to the department.

As the theme suggests, the festival draws inspiration from nakasi, a traditional form of live music in Japan in which musicians moved among streets, banquets and other settings, performing spontaneously for people, the department said. This year's festival will carry that spirit into public spaces, allowing visitors to encounter art as they walk around and interact with their surroundings.

The department said the festival is collaborating for the first time with Centquatre-Paris, a public cultural center in the French capital, and has invited its director, Valérie Senghor, as a guest curator to foster artistic dialogue and collaboration between Taiwan and France.

Vincent Yanelle, political counselor and head of the press department at the French Office in Taipei, said two French art groups have been invited to participate in the festival, offering different perspectives on Taipei's urban environment and deepening cultural exchanges while creating opportunities for further international arts cooperation.

Launched in Paris in 2002, Nuit Blanche is an international arts festival held in cities around the world to make art more accessible to the public and encourage residents to see their cities in a new light. Taipei held its first Nuit Blanche in 2016, and this year's event will run until the wee hours of Nov. 1.