Photos

***Celebrating Nuit Blanche in Toronto***

Vodka Pool, 2009
Dan Mihaltianu (Berlin, Germany)
Installation

Viewers gather around a reflecting pool of alcohol situated on the pristine floor to ponder the volatile and symbolic qualities of 80-proof vodka. Liquor and liquidity bear more than passing associations to banks and money. Intoxicating, like the euphoria of riches; evaporating, like the vanishing of investments in economic downturns; alchemical, like the transformation of use value into exchange value. In black markets and other underground economies, the connections are even more literal. During wars and totalitarian regimes, such as Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship in Romania, alcohol serves as both an escape and a home-brewed currency for procuring essential goods and services.