Molten lava, Lego creation highlights of 10th annual Nuit Blanche festival

A barn owl made with more than 50,000 Legopieces, "a human glacier that slowly drifts through the city," and an exhibit featuring 15 tons of molten rock and "occasional eruptions."

Those are some of the highlights of the 10th edition of Nuit Blanche happening Saturday, October 3, from 6:55 p.m. until sunrise on Sunday, October 4. The popular festival will allow you to take in more than 110 art projects created and performed by nearly 400 local,national and international artists.

This year, exhibitions will be located in familiar and new locations including around University of Toronto and College Street over to Carlton and Jarvis Streets; City Hall and down Bay Street; and along the waterfront, between York Street and Parliament Street.

Transform Toronto

"For the 10th edition, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche will transform Toronto with one of its most interactive and exciting programs yet," Mayor John Tory said today. "Since 2006, the city has come alive through contemporary art for this one sleepless night, creating magical experiences and resulting in an impressive economic impact for Toronto."

Internationally acclaimed artist JR is scheduled to present the event's first-ever artist exhibitionBlack and White Night. It features multiple projects located in and around City Hall and down Bay Street.

"I want to turn the city inside out for one night with the help and energy of the community, so that Toronto creates a powerful image that will be remembered," said JR.

In another exhibit,Les Bosquets in Toronto., JR shares portraits of young people from the housing projects around Paris. In 2004, JR pasted oversized portraits of the residents who lived in the Les Bosquets housing project in the suburb of Montfermeil on the buildings. After riots erupted in Montfermeil and throughout France a year later, he began posting the photographs in some of Paris' expensive neighbourhoods.

Les Bosquets, he says, is designed to challenge the widely accepted "clich of the ghetto."