PARIS—Paris’s seventh annual Nuit Blanche takes place from dusk to dawn the night of October 4–5. The festival, whose title translates as “white night” or, more colloquially, “an all-nighter,” offers 12 hours of free art in public spaces and galleries throughout the city (and into the suburbs). The event was conceived by the mayoral office of Paris in 2002, and this year’s high profile aristic directors Hervé Chandès and Ronald Chammah are testament to its status — Chandès has been general director of the Fondation Cartier since 1994, while film distributor Chammah has developed exhibitions such as “Woman of Many Faces: Isabelle Huppert” show at New York’s P.S.1 in 2005.  

More than 70 installations and projects, several of them specially commissioned for the event, make up the program. The directors have focused outdoor works on Paris’s major train stations and key landmarks such as the Mairie of the 3rd arrondissement, the College des Bernadins, and the Tour Montparnasse, while numerous art institutions have invited artists to intervene in their buildings with works shown for just one night. Visual art and film predominate, but there is also music, dance, theater, and literature. And as an added bonus, the Nuit Blanche has become an excuse for the city’s famously early-to-bed public transport to stay up a little late. Buses, metros, and trains run until 2 a.m., and metro line 14 will operate all night.

Click on the photo gallery at left to see ARTINFO's top five visual art attractions for your night out in the city of light.