Holding Ground: Nuit Blanche and Other Ruptures investigates international methodologies in curatorial practice from Canada, France, England, Aotearoa New Zealand, the United States, and many more countries. It unearths the connections and historical moments that draw public exhibitions and public art together and the differences that set them apart.
This book is grounded in ongoing international exchanges and draws on the breadth of artistic and curatorial work in the field. This volume brings forward as many voices as possible to reflect on their experiences with Nuit Blanche and public art, creating a diversity of perspectives on this evolving event/festival/exhibition/happening. While the aim is to present the history of Nuit Blanche through the lens of its different urban incarnations, the volume also seeks to capture its decolonial and BIPOC energies alongside its more radical and utopian aspirations. This collection of essays, therefore, emphasizes the political changes that are reflected in the curatorial programming of recent Nuit Blanche exhibitions, with a new generation of curators and artists who have created ruptures and disruptions by proposing new models of public art with engagements that simultaneously question, decentre, and expand experiences of the city.
Holding Ground is published by PUBLIC Books and distributed by Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Janine Marchessault is a professor in Cinema and Media Arts at York University and holds a York Research Chair in Media Art and Social Engagement. Her research engages with the history of large-screen media (from multiscreen to IMAX to media as architecture and VR); diverse models of public art, festivals, and site-specific curation; 21st century moving-image archives; and notions of collective memory/history.

Janine Marchessault's profile page

Dr. Julie Nagam (Metis, German/Syrian) is the Chair in the History of Indigenous Art in North America, a joint appointment between the University of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. She is an Associate Professor in the faculty of History. She is co-editor of Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital, a special issue of PUBLIC journal. Currently, Dr. Nagam is curating a public art installations for a Reconciliation walk at the Forks in Winnipeg, and leading a team that is creating an Indigenous App for Winnipeg's art, architectural, and place-based history. She has created three new commissioned artworks in Winnipeg, Toronto and New York. Her artwork and research has been shown nationally and internationally.

Julie Nagam's profile page