Bursting With Delights
New artists add to the buzz of the 15th Edinburgh Art Festival
There’s a distinct buzz about the Edinburgh Art Festival
FROM blockbuster exhibitions of Rembrandt’s masterpieces to shows and performances in artist-run spaces, Edinburgh Art Festival brings its varied programme of visual art to the capital this month.
The 15th festival opens on July 26. It’s commissioned five internationally acclaimed artists to make new work that will be exhibited around the city.
Four artists based in Scotland have been selected for the Platform programme, which showcases work by artists at the start of their careers. Shilpa Gupta, Ruth Ewan, Adam Lewis Jacob and collaborators Ross Birrell and David Harding have all worked on new projects for spaces off the beaten track, or buildings rarely open to the public.
These include a performance by Shilpa Gupta at the Burns Monument, alongside her exhibition in the city’s former Fire Museum about poets who have been jailed.
Elsewhere, Ross Birrell and David Harding have collaborated on a film installation for Trinity Apse, a Gothic kirk in the Old Town, and Adam Jacob Lewis will present his work at the Institut Français d’ecosse in West Parliament Square. Ruth Ewan is working with a magician to create a series of street performances.
“One of the key ways we like to present new work in the festival is to think about work that is really engaging with the context of Edinburgh,” says Sorcha Carey, festival director. “Sometimes that has been about engaging with the built heritage – and we continue to do that by opening up spaces that aren’t always accessible. But we also like to think about what Edinburgh becomes in August.
“One of the things that feels very strong in this year’s programme is a strand of artists thinking about how Edinburgh becomes so filled with performances. So all of the projects have an absolute global relevance, but they also have a particular meaning in our local context.”
The festival works with more than 20 museums and galleries around the city for its partner programme, which includes blockbuster shows at the National Galleries of
“The city is filled with performances”
Scotland, the National Museum and the Queen’s Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, some continuing after the festival ends.
Several venues are celebrating anniversaries. Jupiter Artland, the sculpture park just outside the city, is marking 10 years with new commissions by acclaimed artists including Phyllida Barlow. She has created Quarry, a large concrete and steel structure that will remain in Jupiter’s woodlands permanently.
“I find it amazing that 10 years have passed and how at Jupiter they’re continually evolving and adding in a really sensitive and authentic way to their beautiful landscape,” Sorcha says. “The Phyllida Barlow piece is extraordinary and very powerful. It’s her first outdoor piece, which demonstrates the level of ambition.”
At the City Art Gallery, Travelling Gallery celebrates 40 years of driving art around Scotland in a bus with its first gallery show. Ingleby Gallery, which recently moved into the former Meeting House of the Glasite Church, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with Jacob’s Ladder.
“The festival came out of a very vibrant visual arts scene in Edinburgh, and the desire to have a festival that celebrated and championed what they were doing all year round,” Sorcha says. “So it feels really nice that for the 15th edition there are all these important anniversary moments.”
This year’s festival also brings together a strong series of exhibitions by women, including Tacita Dean at the Fruitmarket, Victoria Crowe at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and The Scottish Gallery, and Lucy Skaer at Talbot Rice, as well as Gunnie Moberg and Margaret Tait at Stills.
There will be partner exhibitions by emerging artists’ collectives and studios, and a series of Art Late events.
The programme continues throughout August when “the city becomes a centre for showcasing the very best in the arts from across the world,” Sorcha says. “Scotland is a place that people look to internationally to see what their artists are doing, so it’s critical that visual art has a presentation in that moment.”
Edinburgh Art Festival runs from July 26-August 26. Visit edinburghartfestival.com