Silo Nights at Public Pier

SILO NIGHTS AT PUBLIC PIER, CURATED BY OCAD UNIVERSITY
For six nights only, Toronto’s waterfront lights up after dark. Starting September 18, Silo Nights transforms the iconic Canada Malting Silos into a giant canvas for immersive art and storytelling — featuring international artists, student collaborations, and Canadian and world premieres. Friday and Saturday nights, open to all ages. The series culminates on October 3 with a Nuit Blanche grand finale, in partnership with the European Union (EU) Delegation to Canada, with two projections exploring the theme, What We Carry Forward.

Silo Nights at Public Pier is curated by OCAD University as part of Public Pier, presented by The Bentway, Harbourfront Centre, OCAD University, and Waterfront BIA.

WHERE: Public Pier
Marina Quay West, 539 Queens Quay West, Toronto

WHEN: Friday and Saturday nights
September 18-19, 2026
September 25-26, 2026
October 2-3, 2026

HOURS:
Fridays and Saturdays: 8 to 11 p.m.
Saturday: Oct. 3, 2026: 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on the occasion of Nuit Blanche

ABOUT PUBLIC PIER
Public Pier is a collaborative public-realm pilot exploring the future potential of Marina Quay West as a vibrant waterfront destination for culture, gathering, and public life. Led by The Bentway, Harbourfront Centre, OCAD University, and the Waterfront BIA, the project uses temporary placemaking and cultural experiences to test how an underused waterfront site can contribute to community life, economic activity, and the future of Toronto’s public realm.

SILO NIGHTS AT PUBLIC PIER: PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE

Friday, September 18 and Saturday, September 19
8 to 11 p.m.
World premiere
Decomposition No. 7: Undergrowth by transmedia artist Ali Phi
Curated and presented in partnership with The Bentway.

The world premiere of Decomposition No. 7: Undergrowth imagines Toronto as a city shaped by what lies beneath it: root systems threading beneath the street grid, connecting trees across the city, and holding the ground where new growth begins. This new immersive artwork reads the city's street-tree records, including species, trunk diameter, and location, as a score, transforming data built for maintenance into light, sound, and a portrait of slow, ongoing urban growth.

Sited for the Canada Malting Silos, once a working monument to industrial growth and now the site of future green parkland, the work reflects the cycles of growth and renewal that shape the urban landscape, while projecting a new, greener possibility for the city. As Toronto keeps building on its industrial past, its future may be written as much in root systems and canopy cover as in concrete and steel. Decomposition No. 7 invites us to hear that future now; in the records we're already keeping.

Phi’s works are at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Through installations, autonomous machines, and performances, he explores the underlying mechanisms of new media, technology, interactions and data. In his practice, architecture and space play a vital role both metaphorically and physically.

By utilizing computer programming and generative algorithms, he produces interactive and generative media that involve the relationship between geometry, pattern, light, and poetry. His creations often incorporate transparent, reflective, and modular elements, combined with mathematics, particle systems, and point clouds.

Friday, September 25
8 to 11 p.m.
Canadian premiere
Breathe (2026) by Faisal Anwar 

Presented in partnership with The Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga, in conjunction with Faisal Anwar's CommonSky series featured in the exhibition Lines, Pattern, Action (September–December 2026) at The Blackwood, curated by Ruba Kana'an.

In the Canadian premiere of Breathe, by Pakistani-Canadian hybrid artist Faisal Anwar, the Purple Martin’s 5,000-mile migration from Brazil to North America transforms the Canada Malting Silos into a living sky. Through generative visuals, animation, sound, and poetic storytelling, the work follows the birds through changing climates and disrupted ecologies. Breathe reflects on their resilience and vulnerability – offering a powerful metaphor for our disconnection from nature and an invitation to consider our impact on the world around us.

Anwar is a hybrid artist, curator and immersive art producer working at the intersection of art, science, technology, and ecological storytelling. For nearly two decades, his research-based practice has used digital systems, data, and interactive installations to explore our relationship with the natural world.

Sound design by Debashis Sinha. Breathe was originally commissioned and presented by ART on THE MART in Chicago from September to November 2025.

Scientists and collaborating institutions: Joe Siegrist, President/CEO, Purple Martin Conservation Association (PMCA); Dr. Mario Cohn-Haft, National Amazonian Research Institute; Dr. Erika Hingst Zaher, Butantan Institute; Dr. Loren Buck, Northern Arizona University; Dr. Kevin Fraser, University of Manitoba; Dr. Jason Fischer, Disney Animals Science and Environment, and Texas Tech University Department of Natural Resources Management. https://www.purplemartin.org/

Photo credit: Purple Martin Association

September 26
8 to 11 p.m.
World premiere
The Shape of Memory by OOOPStudio

The world premiere presented by Instituto Italiano di Cultura – Toronto and the Consulate General of Italy, Cultural Section, with generous support from the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Canada.

The Shape of Memory treats a city's memory not as history to archive but as intelligence to activate, the raw material from which communities build their next version of themselves. Projected on the Canada Malting Silos, it returns Toronto's memory of land and water to its waterfront.

The concept for The Shape of Memory was created by OOOPStudio, with photogrammetry, animation and editing by Alessandro Grisendi and 3D by Marco Noviello. OOOPStudio is a contemporary scenography studio working across video, architecture and collective experience, immersive works for theater, facades and urban space worldwide. Photography is set and location selection for photogrammetry was developed in collaboration with Lucas Piperias and Menita Sriharsha from OCAD University.

September 26
8 to 11 p.m.
World premiere of animation collaboration workshop project

Presented in partnership with the French Embassy of Canada and Institut français du Canada, with generous support from the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Canada.

French projection mapping artist and educator Pablo Gracias, based in Lille and associated with Rencontres Audiovisuelles, is leading a collaborative workshop for OCAD University students in Experimental Animation and Graphic Design where they will explore animation, visual storytelling and projection mapping.

The resulting project, created specifically for the Canada Malting Silos, transforms the landmark waterfront structure through large-scale projected imagery, bringing together Gracias’s professional production expertise with the students’ creative perspectives. It is also a powerful example of the experiential learning opportunities offered by OCAD University. Students obtain real-world in developing and producing site-specific work for a large-scale public audience – from concept and animation to production and presentation.

October 2
8 to 11 p.m.
Toronto premiere
Carnet de voyage d'une particule/Travel Diary of a Particle

Presented with support from the Arts Council of Ontario | Conseil des arts de l'Ontario, Ministère des affaires francophones de l'Ontario, Délégation Wallonie Bruxelles, Wallonie Bruxelles International, and Wallonie Bruxelles Enseignement.

The Toronto premiere of Carnet de voyage d’une particule / Travel Diary of a Particle is a 7-minute animated journey following a photon from the Sun to Earth, through space and underwater environments. Exploring light, nature and ecology, the project brings together students from OCAD University’s Experimental Animation program and students from two ARTS² programs in Mons, Belgium: Digital Arts within Visual Arts and Applied and Interactive Music within the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Students – OCAD University / 2D creation: Shannon Halliday, Sophia Poaps, Jae Despi, Laura Barbi, Aklesiya Yared, Zahrah Khurram.

Students – ARTS² / 3D creation: Mathias Serwy, Natasha Alves de Arujo, Noah Loute, Lalie Istasse, Julian Petit, Eugene Kamegneson Fotso, Clément Dandrimont, Adriano Spadafora.

Students – ARTS² / Sound creation: Oriane Quertenmont, Romain Soudon, William Escande, Guillaume Toussaint, Hugo Drouillon, Susy Magnien, Noé Werlen, Eliza Canivet

Faculty: Philippe Blanchard – OCAD University; Martin Waroux – ARTS², Matthieu Buytaers – ARTS², Cédric Sabato – ARTS², Florent Schirrer – ARTS².

October 3 (Nuit Blanche)
7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

The Light and Melting Temporalities presented by The Global Centre for Climate Action at OCAD University and the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Canada, as part of Nuit Blanche Toronto.

In the Canadian premiere of The Light, Paul Murnaghan follows a lone traveller reconnecting the sentience of the ocean abyss to the deep mountain forests, allowing us to glimpse a living world beyond usual perception. Filmed entirely in natural light, the piece unfolds as an animist passage through water, land and sky.

The Light was developed for Nuit Blanche from the film, Against the Waning Light, featuring Nina McGowan and is generously supported by The Irish Arts Council

Murnaghan is an Irish multidisciplinary artist, working with the substance of belief. He has been exploring, researching and exhibiting internationally for over twenty years. Current projects focus on animism and interspecies communication, attempting a less human-centric view of existence.

The world premiere of Melting Temporalities, by Dr. Claire Brunet and Johnny Ranger, transforms the Canada Malting Silos into a monumental glacier that slowly fractures to reveal forests, waterways, geological formations, and microscopic life. As the frozen landscape dissolves into digital meshes before reassembling, the work reflects on climate change, resilience, transformation, and regeneration.

Melting Temporalities marks the first collaboration between Canadian sculptor Dr. Claire Brunet, Professor at OCAD University, and Montréal-based multimedia director Johnny Ranger, founder of Studio Mindroots. Bringing together sculpture, creative research, immersive media and large-scale projection, they create poetic experiences exploring ecology, temporality, environmental change and the convergence of technology, nature and human experience.

Technology for Silo Nights projections provided by Panasonic, with special thanks to AVA Animation and the City of Toronto.