Winter Stations and The Waterfront BIA partner on an art-filled Winter along Lake Ontario
A new slate of outdoor art exhibitions kicks off this October, as 15 illuminated seesaws take over the central waterfront.
October 8, 2019 (TORONTO) – Winter Stations and the Waterfront BIA are announcing a renewed partnership to continue bringing interactive public art to the water’s edge during the shoulder seasons. For the last three years they have partnered on Winter Stations’ sister exhibition Ice Breakers to draw Torontonians outdoors in the wintertime. In an effort to diversify the offerings and showcase public art, the partnership is evolving to mount a series of exhibits leading up to the February Family Day launch of Winter Stations at Woodbine Beach.
“As an organization, Winter Stations has proven successful in using public art to draw people back down to the water’s edge in the colder months. As we explore ways to extend our partnership, we wanted to focus on creating more opportunities for artistic intervention. We also wanted to create a distinct experience from the beach by transitioning to invited exhibits,” says Tim Kocur, Executive Director, Waterfront BIA. “We’re really excited to be bringing two dynamic, interactive installations to the waterfront for their Toronto debut.”
In this new agreement, Winter Stations will work with the BIA to source existing installations from around the world. This year’s efforts will see two installations travel down Highway 401 from Montreal with the assistance of Quebec-based Creos.
The Waterfront BIA is working in partnership with Harbourfront Centre, Waterfront Toronto and PortsToronto to bring the new types of installations to the central waterfront.
“We’re excited to continue our relationship with the Waterfront BIA and their local partners. There is a real contrast between the urban, waterfront experience along Queens Quay and the open expanse of Woodbine Beach,” says Roland Rom Colthoff, Executive Director, Winter Stations. “We wanted to take advantage of being in the city by introducing light and sound into the experience. The two exhibits we have chosen will be even more interactive and give children and adults alike the opportunity to play.”
Winter Stations Presents Impulse
October 25th – November 12th | Hours 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Harbourfront Centre, Exhibition Commons
Impulse is an interactive work comprising a series of 15 seesaws that form units of light and sound that can be activated by the public to create an ever-changing composition. By playing on the seesaws, you become a musician and artist – creating a dynamic light and sound wave giving a pulse of warmth to the winter’s short days and dark nights. Impulse embodies ideas of serialism, repetition and variation to produce both intense and calming zones.
Impulse is an ever-changing urban event and instrument that was first presented as part of the sixth edition of Luminothérapie in 2015-2016 at the Place des Festivals in the Quartier des Spectacles in Montreal.
Sponsors: Waterfront BIA and Harbourfront Centre
Creation and Execution: Lateral Office and CS Design
Production: Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, Montreal Canada
Sound Design: Mitchell Akiyama
Fabrication: Generique Design
Winter Stations Presents Loop
January 15th to February 8th | Hours 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
York Street Park (York Street and Harbour Street)
Loop is a cross between a music box, a zoetrope (a 19th-century optical toy) and a railway handcar. The retro-futuristic machine, more than two metres in diameter, creates animated fairy tale loops. It activates when a group of people work a hand lever, revealing a lit-up image cylinder that creates the illusion of motion in the drawings. The participants are in total control of the speed of the images, the frequency at which the light flickers and the rhythm of the audio composition. The black and white images recall the earliest movements and are tinted through a strobe effect. They can be viewed both inside and outside the cylinder, so they can be watched up close or far away.
Loop was first presented as part of the seventh edition of Luminothérapie in 2016-2017 at the Place des Festivals in the Quarter des Spectacles in Montreal.
Sponsors: Waterfront BIA, Waterfront Toronto, PortsToronto
Creation and Execution: Olivier Girouard (Ekumen) and Jonathan Villeneuve
Animations: Ottoblix
Industrial design: Generique Design
Electronic design and programming: Thomas Ouellet Fredericks
Technical support: Adsum Lab
Mechanical consultation: Jérôme D. Roy (Terrafirma)
Audio programming: Dominic Thibault
Sound: Olivier Girouard (Ekumen)
Production: Quartier des Spectacles Partnership (Montreal, Canada) and Ekumen
Winter Stations Competition and Exhibition
February 17th – March 30th
Woodbine Beach
The flagship Winter Stations is slated to launch its sixth annual competition in the coming weeks as the team continues its fundraising efforts. Winter Stations is an international competition and exhibition that receives design submissions from around the world. Each year, the winning installations transform the unused lifeguard stations along Woodbine Beach into whimsical works of winter art.
For more information, visit the Winter Stations website.
About The Waterfront BIA
Representing businesses along the Queens Quay corridor between Bathurst and Yonge, the Waterfront BIA supports the continued development of the waterfront as a premier destination that is well-connected to the rest of the City and is beautiful, clean and vibrant year-round.
Activities of the BIA include representing the area on key policy and planning areas, making targeted public realm improvements and highlighting the area’s vibrancy with activations and daily promotion online. Follow us on Twitter @waterfrontbia, Facebook @waterfrontbia and Instagram @TOwaterfront.
About Harbourfront Centre
Harbourfront Centre is a registered, charitable not-for-profit cultural organization operating a 10-acre campus on Toronto’s central waterfront. A leading international centre for contemporary arts, culture, and ideas, we inspire audiences and visitors with a breadth of bold, ambitious and engaging experiences.
About Waterfront Toronto
The Governments of Canada and Ontario and the City of Toronto created Waterfront Toronto to oversee and lead the renewal of Toronto’s waterfront. Public accessibility, design excellence, sustainable development, economic development and fiscal sustainability are the key drivers of the waterfront revitalization. Toronto’s new waterfront communities will use technology to enhance quality of life and create economic opportunity for the citizens of Toronto, helping to keep the city competitive with major urban centres around the world for business, jobs and talent.
About PortsToronto (portstoronto.com)
For more than 100 years PortsToronto has worked with its partners at the federal, provincial and municipal levels to enhance the economic growth of the City of Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. PortsToronto owns and operates Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, which welcomed 2.8 million passengers in 2018; the Outer Harbour Marina, one of Canada’s largest freshwater marinas; and, Marine Terminal 52, which provides transportation, distribution, storage and container services to businesses at the Port of Toronto. PortsToronto is committed to fostering strong, healthy and sustainable communities and has invested more than $11 million since 2009 in charitable initiatives and environmental programs that benefit communities along Toronto’s waterfront and beyond. PortsToronto operates in accordance with the Canada Marine Act and is guided by a nine-member board with representation from all three levels of government.
