The 2015 EAF Programme features performances, guided tours, workshops and talks by some of the world’s leading artists and curators throughout 30 July – 30 August. Highlights include a series of artist performances to run alongside the 2015 EAF Commissions Programme, uniting some of the most innovative artists from across the globe to create work under the theme of The Improbable City – a response to the unique fairy-tale architecture and setting of Edinburgh. Performances include The King Must Die by Marvin Gaye Chetwynd; SING SIGN: a close duet by Hanna Tuulikki; and a special one-off live performance combining electronic music and field recordings of dolphins and whales by Mexican artist Ariel Guzik, to accompany his first exhibition in the UK. Each year EAF’s popular Festival Detours brings a series of intimate live performances by leading and emerging stars to the city’s museums and galleries. This year’s programme will see acclaimed comedian Phill Jupitus perform live in Inverleith House; poet Carol Ann Duffy at Talbot Rice Gallery; A Pocket Full of Grimms, a children’s theatre show, at Jupiter Artland; and upcoming music sensation, Man of Moon, at Collective.

The 2015 Events Programme also sees the return of EAF Explorers, a special activity trail for families; Art Late, a popular series of specially programmed late openings and events; and an EAF Film Club to accompany Platform: 2015, an exhibition of early career artists selected by open call; as well as the festival’s Tourist-in-Residence, a series of alternative tours of the city led by artist Catherine Street. Street will lead three performative tours exploring some of the more improbable spaces in the city – including The Book of Money, a look at Edinburgh’s longstanding relationship with the financial industry, and a visit to the city’s newest institution, The Library of Mistakes, a reading room dedicated to the world history of economic successes and failures.

The wider festival programme will include regular opportunities to hear artists talk about their work, including Charles Avery in conversation with Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Director Simon Groom at Ingleby Gallery; a tour led by Tara Donovan at Jupiter Artland where the artist will select several works within the sculpture park’s permanent collection that reflect her exhibition; a panel discussion with curators from the Hanne Darboven Foundation and Talbot Rice Gallery, on Darboven’s legacy as one of the 20th century’s most idiosyncratic conceptual artists; and a part-improvised, group-vocal acoustic performance work by Deb Marshall created within and in response to the vast, neo-classical ‘Adam Dome’ of H.M. General Register House.

Away with the Birds, 2014 by Hanna Tuulikki

PERFORMANCES: 2015 EAF Commissions

Artists present performances as part of their work created for Edinburgh Art Festival’s 2015 Commissions Programme, housed in exciting off-site locations.

30 July, 8, 15 & 29 August | Fountains Close
Hanna Tuulikki
SING SIGN is an intimate performance devised for the closes of Edinburgh’s Old Town. Composed by Hanna Tuulikki, and performed with Daniel Padden, the work combines music and gestures drawn from British Sign Language to reflect on how our experience of the city is inseparable from the the languages that we speak. The performance on 15 August will be followed by a BSL Tour of the Old Town led by Karen Forbes at 3:15pm.

1, 22 & 29 August | Old Royal High School
Marvin Gaye Chetwynd
Known for her deliberately shambolic and lo-fi performances, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd’s new work The King Must Die explores the ancient Greek cult of the Mother Goddess, immersing us in an intense and supremely pagan celebration of feminity and female power.

1 August | Trinity Apse
Ariel Guzik
Mexican artist Ariel Guzik gives a live soundscape and performance of a specially devised set combining electronic music and field recordings of whales and dolphins, with Alejandro Colinas and Emilio Galvez. Field recordings by Nature Expression and Resonance Research Laboratory.

Sea of Cortez, 2007 by Ariel Guzik

Home Made Tasers, Studio 231, New Museum, New York, 26 October 2011 – 1 January 2012 by Marvin Gaye Chetwynd

ARTISTS’ TALKS

Enjoy a late breakfast with this year’s commissioned artists. The artists will discuss their work with specialists from areas related to their practice, over coffee and croissants.

30 July | Ingleby Gallery
Charles Avery in conversation with Simon Groom, Director of Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

1 August | Trinity Apse
Ariel Guzik in conversation with Mark Simmonds OBE and Nicola Triscott, Arts Catalyst

2 August | 9 – 11 Blair Street
Julie Favreau, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd in conversation with author Edward Hollis, and curator Sorcha Carey.

9 August | 9 – 11 Blair Street
Hanna Tuulikki in conversation with writer and curator Ella Chmielewska.

16 August | 9 – 11 Blair Street
Emma Finn in conversation with Sorcha Carey.

23 August | 9 – 11 Blair Street
Marvin Gaye Chetwynd in conversation with Professor Neil Mulholland.

EAF FILM CLUB

4 & 18 August | 9 – 11 Blair Street
Accompanying Platform: 2015, this year’s Film Club offers an opportunity to see artist films from across Scotland. Join us for an evening of screenings curated by artist-led gallery, Embassy in Edinburgh and Luke Collins, Project Manager for artist’s moving image agency LUX Scotland, Glasgow.

ART LATE

Art Late is a series of specially programmed late openings and events, taking in live music, performances, artist talks and tours. This year offers even more opportunities to enjoy the evening programme.

13 August | 6 – 10:30pm
Including Ingleby Gallery, Old Royal High School, Collective, Stills, Edinburgh Printmakers, Inverleith House and GARAGE

20 August | 6 – 10:30pm
Including Talbot Rice Gallery, Stills, Number Shop, National Portrait Gallery and Dovecot Studios, with a special Curator’s tour of the exhibitions at Dovecot Studios, a 10% discount on selected textile products, a weave demonstration by Apprentice Weaver Ben Hymers and a gun-tufting demonstration by Trainee Tufter Vana Coleman. Featuring band Miaoux Miaoux to close the evening, with additional support from Blue Moon.

TOURS

Each year the festival works with locally based artists, offering unique perspectives of the city through one-off tours. This year, artist and writer Catherine Street will be leading three new tours of venues across Edinburgh taking inspiration from the theme of this year’s commissions programme: The Improbable City. Each afternoon during the festival, there are guided tours of venues, leaving from the festival Kiosk on EAF Kiosk on 9-11 Blair St, EH1 1QR. With different routes to choose from, these are a great way to find your way through the city and explore the festival. Additionally, every Friday at 1pm, you can end the week with a Walking Lunch Tour. Armed with a brown-bag lunch, this tour is designed to give you a snapshot of the festival during your lunch break.

EAF takes place from 30 July – 30 August. For the full festival programme and booking details visit www.edinburghartfestival.com or go to the Edinburgh Art Festival Kiosk on 9-11 Blair Street, EH1 1QR.

See Festival Director Sorcha Carey’s initial response to the festival programme and exhibition recommendations on Central Station here.

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Find more events in our weekly bulletin here.

As part of Edinburgh Art Festival this summer, internationally renowned Korean artist Kwang Young Chun presents his first solo exhibition in Scotland at Dovecot Gallery. From 31 July to 26 September 2015 Chun’s AGGREGATIONS will be on display, uniting the traditions of making and Eastern philosophy with the artist’s painterly interest in American Abstract Expressionism.

Kwang Young Chun, Aggregation 06 – JN028, 2006, 250cm diameter, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper

Kwang Young Chun, Aggregation 06 – JN028 detail, 2006, 250cm diameter, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper

After graduating with an MFA from Philadelphia College of Art in 1971, Chun spent 20 years interested in Abstract Expressionism as a medium to convey his personal turmoil with the divide between ideals and reality. Chun then sought a new way to communicate his art in a Korean sentiment. A childhood memory of mulberry paper medicine packages with name cards – hanging from the ceiling observed during a visit to a doctor practising Chinese medicine – sparked a significant shift in the artist’s trajectory from 2D to 3D making. By attaching small wrapped packages depicting Korean and Chinese characters to a flat surface, Chun had found a method by which to express his gestures and words. He has since constructed colourful and complex assemblages comprised of triangular forms in various sizes which he views as ‘basic units of information’ creating both harmony and conflict. They are cut from Polystyrene, wrapped in Korean mulberry paper and tied with hand-twisted mulberry paper string. Mulberry paper or ‘Hanji’ literally means “the paper of Korea”. Hanji is not simply paper; the strong vitality of the paper means it can be used in a multitude of ways. There is an old saying that paper lasts a thousand years and textiles (such as silk or hemp) last five hundred, reflecting the superior strength of paper over cloth.

Throughout his work, contrasts are continually apparent – between personal and mass produced, between soft organic forms and jagged cracked fragments, between the whole and its various parts held in perfect tension, and between the specific traditions of a culture and the international language of art. Aggregations bring together a series of works representing both the artist’s reconciliation with the Abstract Expressionism movement and a reflection on the history of human life.

Kwang Young Chun, Aggregation 13 – NV045 RED, 2013, 163cm x 230cm, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper

Kwang Young Chun 14 – NV058 (Dream 21), 2014, 163cm x 131cm, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper

Chun’s mindscapes have the appearance of quoting from textile – where repeat rhythms and rich and blended colours are combined in smaller elements to build up an overall pictorial whole. Dovecot Gallery seeks to promote the work of artists who share concerns for the touch of the human hand in making and crafting works of contemporary art. Chun highlights the areas of crossover and connection between expressive fine art with the detailed precision of lovingly crafted hand-made objects. The results are visually and texturally rich pieces whose immediate visual impact brings them completely into the present moment – belying the long hours of meticulous making and care that has gone into their construction.

AGGREGATIONS is open from 31 July to 26 September 2015 at Dovecot Gallery, Edinburgh. For further details check Dovecot and see the full Edinburgh Art Festival programme here.

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Edinburgh Art Festival has announced a new platform for Early Career Artists to participate in the 12th edition of the festival, which will run from 30 July to 30 August 2015.

Submissions will be reviewed and selected by Edinburgh Art Festival director Sorcha Carey, leading contemporary artists Christine Borland and Craig Coulthard. Between 3-5 artists will be selected from the open call, and work closely with the festival director and team to present their work in a group exhibition as part of the 2015 festival. The artists will receive a production allowance (up to £1500) and an artist fee of £500 as well as any technical support required.

To be eligible, applicants must have been living in Scotland for at least the past two years and have a BA in Fine Art (or related subject) obtained between 2-10 years ago. Also, you must not have exhibited in a public institution or be represented by a commercial gallery.

For more information and to apply, visit here.

Read more about what Edinburgh Art Festival director Sorcha Carey is looking for in the open call on Central Station here.

Deadline: 20 April

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Find more opportunities in our weekly bulletin here.

Edinburgh Art Festival has just announced its programme for 2015. This year sees international artists introduced to Scottish audiences for the first time including Americans Tara Donovan and John Chamberlain, Korean artist Kwang Young Chun and the late German artist Hanne Darboven. There will also be the chance to see new works by artists Toby Paterson, Sara Barker, Charles Avery and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd as well as early career artists from the open call still to be determined. We got in touch with EAF’s Director, Sorcha Carey to find out more.

Portrait of Sorcha Carey

If you only had one day in Edinburgh on a limited budget, what five exhibitions would you recommend not to miss?
Most of our programme is free, and Edinburgh is supremely walkable, so there would be a whole host of options. If the weather’s nice, I’d recommend a morning walk down to Inverleith House to see the John Chamberlain, and then continuing on along the Waters of Leith to Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop to see Toby Paterson, with Rhubaba just around the corner. After lunch in town, you could take in Hanne Darboven at the Talbot Rice Gallery, and Kwan Young Chun at Dovecot. Then if you’re super keen, you could pop into Phyllida Barlow, at the Fruitmarket, conveniently located just next to the train station (and the café does great cakes, if you’re in need of a pick me up).

Inverleith House: John Chamberlain, ‘Miss Lucy Pink’, 1962. Painted and chromium-plated steel. 47 × 42 × 39 inches (119.4 × 106.7 × 99 cm) Private collection. © 2015 Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by David Heald. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

Dovecot Studios: Kwang Young Chun, ‘Aggregation 06 – JN028’, 2006. 250cm diameter. Mixed media with Korean mulberry paper.

This is your fifth year as Festival Director. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned since your first EAF festival and how has your approach now changed?
I remember coming across that wonderful Beckett quote after my first festival – Try Again, Fail Again, Fail Better – and it has kept me company since then. It speaks to me of that tightrope you walk, wanting to do better each year, but also needing to be ready to fail. I have a much greater understanding of our context now – both the city itself, and what it becomes in August. And one certainty about festivals is that they will always surprise you – each year has its own energy, and at a certain point you have to let go and allow the festival be what it wants to be that year!

The festival seems to encourage works which sits outside of the traditional gallery space. Can you give us a preview of what visitors might expect on Edinburgh’s streets?
Programming work for public spaces is at the heart of what we do – it’s one of the ways in which we try and make contemporary practice more accessible, as well as to engage in a lively conversation with our context. Last year, we were fortunate enough to work with the Indian curator Vidya Shivadas, and something she said to me on one of her visits really stuck with me, and has provided the inspiration for this year’s programme. ‘Sorcha, you live in a picture postcard‘, she said. There are definitely moments when Edinburgh feels like more an illustration in a book than a real place, and this year’s programme explores that tension. There’s a strong strand in contemporary practice, of artists who create quite self-contained worlds – they are entirely invented, but they provide really important ways to think about and reflect on real lived experiences. So visitors to Edinburgh in August will have a unique opportunity to encounter a series of fictional worlds in a city which itself keeps one foot in the world of the real, one in the world of the imagination (the mad god’s dream, as Hugh MacDiarmaid described Edinburgh).

Fruitmarket: Phyllida Barlow. Installation view: dock. Tate Britain, London, 31 March – 19 October 2014.

Ingleby Gallery: Charles Avery, ‘Detail of Untitled (Dancers outside the MoA, Onomatopoeia)’, 2012. Pencil, ink, acrylic and gouache on paper. 83.5 x 114 cm (image size). Private collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh.

Christine Borland, Craig Coulthard and yourself will select a minimum of three early career artists from the open call. What are you looking for from the applicants?
We really want the festival to provide more opportunities for artists trying to develop a full-time practice in Scotland, and our new platform for early career artists is one way in which we are trying to support this,
I can’t speak for my fellow selectors, but I’m looking forward to being surprised, to encountering new work and approaches that I’ve not seen before, and having the opportunity to share that with our audiences.

As the only annual Scottish international contemporary art festival, how does this year’s festival address Scotland’s cultural heritage?
One of the things which makes our festival programme so unique, is that we are not exclusively focussed on contemporary art. While this is definitely one of the core strengths of our programme, we also always have a really strong range of historic shows also. So this year, as well as new work by contemporary practitioners, both the Queen’s Gallery and City Art Centre are showing survey shows of historic Scottish work stretching right back to Ramsay and Wilkes. I think this provides a really interesting context, to see the latest generation of Scottish artists against a backdrop of over 200 years of extraordinary art making.

A festival on this scale with anticipated audience figures of over 300,000 must take its toll. What are your plans for 31 August and when do start planning the 2016 festival?
Yes – September is definitely a time for catching up on sleep (and re-reading Beckett!). We’ve already started planning for 2016, though as ever, there’s still a lot to do…

The festival runs for one month this summer from 30 July – 30 August. See the full programme online here.

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Michelle Hannah, Glass, 2013, Image: Queens Park Railway Club

In exhibition Where do I end and you begin, twenty artists take on the subject of the Commonwealth, considering the combination of the words ‘common’ and ‘wealth’ and examining the legacy of a historical and contemporary construct which often proves problematic. Part of Glasgow 2014′s Cultural Programme, the exhibition features contemporary art selected by five curators from around the Commonwealth.

Shilpa Gupta, Where Do I End and You Begin, 2012, neon

Other highlights include guided tours, film screenings, artist talks, discussions and performances. For the night owl, there’s Art Late, a programme of late night openings and events in three different parts of the city that will feature live music, performances and more.

Art Late South 2013, Image: Kat Gollock

The Edinburgh Art Festival runs from 31 July to 31 August. For more information see the festival website.

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Edinburgh Art Festival has announced its open call for submissions for the 11th edition of the festival, which will run from 31 July – 31 August 2014. Apply with a project that you’d like to bring to the UK’s largest annual festival of visual art. Successful applicants will benefit from inclusion in EAF’s print marketing, website and social media activity, and from its PR strategy.

Selection criteria and details of fees and bursaries are available in our application pack. EAF welcomes all applications, and would be delighted to receive proposals that:

• Bring existing exhibitions to Edinburgh, whether from Scotland, the rest of the UK or further afield
• Feature artists, venues and organisations working together collaboratively
• Feature curatorial projects or art work that have been specifically conceived for the festival
• Focus on one-off events, talks or activities

Submissions will be reviewed by a selection panel which this year includes Sorcha Carey (Director, Edinburgh Art Festival), Pat Fisher (Director, Talbot Rice Gallery), Richard Ingleby (Director, Ingleby Gallery) and Janine Matheson (Director, Creative Edinburgh).

For more details and to apply, visit www.edinburghartfestival.com.

Deadline: 10 February

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EAF Film Club has seen a varied programme of screenings curated by organisations from across the country this year. There have been serious, thought-provoking films, there have been refreshingly lighthearted ones, but what has particularly stood out so far is the use of performance and interaction to heighten the experience, encouraging spectators to become participants.

This is in keeping with this year’s Film Club theme, “Interval As Integration”, focusing on encouraging interaction between the artwork itself and the audience as well as between artist spaces, artists, curators and the viewer.

The first week saw a takeover by The Royal Standard from Liverpool who showcased a selection of films under the title ‘I like the way you move’. Candice Jacobs’ I get Things Done felt somewhat like an endurance test, looking into power structures and work place monotony. This was counteracted later in the evening with the playful, interactive nature of Lucy Pawlak’s Arriving Without Leaving.  Complete with goody bags, Pawlak’s film instructed the viewers through a series of tasks; rubbing peaches on their hands was just one of these. Both bizarre and wonderful it united the audience in the experience, breaking the structure of passive viewing and reminding us of the potential madness of the everyday.

Generator Projects from Dundee showed work by many different artists. The name says it all with Dorian Brauns’ Give Away Wooden Propellers. The audience were invited up on their feet; playful chaos followed.  Ben Skeas’ Trace was striking, filmed in two locations over the course of the year, focusing on nature but full of imagery that was not recognizably so, cleverly manipulated and calming to watch.

Last week The Telfer Gallery presented Bruce Asbestos’ Social Media Takeaway, a flamboyant expression of multi-media art, focusing on the role of social networking in society. Though hilarious and lighthearted, it also reflected on how social networking has taken over, explained in a whirlwind of performance and film.

The Film Club takes place in New Media Scotland, complete with cushions and a handy bar for the intervals. Our concluding Film Club is today (28 August) at 7.30pm and is curated by Circa Projects from Newcastle. Expect to see works by Steina and Woody Vasulka, Zoe Williams and many more – and all for free! To book your place please follow this link: http://eaffilmclubcircaprojects.eventbrite.co.uk/

New Media Scotland
1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB
www.mediascot.org

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In his work Land, Krijn de Koning makes familiar works disappear from view, or manifest in surprising ways, in a series of platforms encasing several iconic works from Edinburgh College of Art’s cast collection.

Venus de Medici, photograph by Kat Gollock

The Venus de Medici cowers in the corner. The Nike of Samothrace is buried up to her thighs, her wings at head height. Discobolus roots around underneath the raised platform’s plywood floor. The Venus de Milo and Spinario also make appearances.

Nike of Samothrace, photograph by Kat Gollock

The Sculpture Court, photograph by Kat Gollock

Krijn de Koning’s structures offer new possibilities to navigate and experience the space they inhabit. This new work has been developed for the Sculpture Court at Edinburgh College of Art, who are co-commissioning this work. Typical of his practice, Land initiates a direct dialogue with the hosting space.

A site for several Parley events during the festival, de Koning’s latest work offers an active platform for framing questions, and excavating and exploring ideas.

Talk on the platform, photograph by Kat Gollock

Parley events still to come:

Krijn de Koning in conversation with Edward Hollis
Krijn de Koning will discuss his work and its implications with architect, teacher and writer Edward Hollis, author of ‘The Secret Lives of Buildings’ and ‘The Memory Palace: A Book of Lost Interiors’.
27 August, 6-7pm, free

Parley Discussion: Tae Think Again, Rethinking Identity in Contemporary Scotland (curated by Rachel Maclean)
Responding to the upcoming 2014 referendum on Scottish Independence, this symposium curated by artist Rachel Maclean intends to delve deeper than a simple yes/no debate and look at the broader social, cultural and historical background to a discussion of contemporary Scottish national identity. The event will begin with a screening of the artist’s recent work The Lion and the Unicorn.
31 August, 2-5pm, free

Talk on the platform, photograph by Kat Gollock

Read more at www.edinburghartfestival.com.

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Artists Tom Nolan and Catherine Payton are this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival Tourists in Residence, offering visitors to Edinburgh the unique perspective of artists based in the city. This collaboration takes the shape of several tours written by the artists. Our Tourists in Residence have also created their own map featuring selected monuments in Edinburgh – both real and imaginary – which can be used for self-guided tours.

The Debtor’s Day Off

Collectively embodying the famous opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, the group will depart from Holyrood Palace, which was formerly designated a debtors’ sanctuary, one in which De Quincey took refuge from the bailiffs on several occasions. Leaving the sanctuary on a Sunday (the day when historically no arrests were permitted in the city) the walk will follow the length of the Royal Mile before ending at De Quincey’s grave in St Cuthbert’s Kirkyard at the west end of Princes Street. The walk, one regularly taken by both Catherine and Tom, will take in many of Edinburgh’s most famous sites but we can expect attention to be drawn to some of the more obscure reference points which will serve as departure points for an associative narrative reflecting some of Edinburgh’s public histories as well as references more particular to our Tourists’ private histories and with frequent reference to De Quincey, the protagonist of our walk.

This tour will take place on Sunday 1 September.

Other tours include A symposium (with free tea and coffee) – held at IKEA after the 8 mile stroll there – and A dissociative walk which explores Edinburgh’s split personality.

Selected Monuments of Edinburgh

A guide and aid to the self-declared, subjective monuments of the city. These spaces form departure points, portals: they are thin places, open to fluctuation in meaning and purpose. They are radically open to mis-, re- and un- interpretation.

-    Tom Nolan & Catherine Payton

This aid will be available at the EAF Kiosk on George Street and can also be downloaded here.

Read more at www.edinburghartfestival.com.

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With Edinburgh Art Festival opening in less than a week, the commissions and their sites are entering the final stages. Here are some images from recent weeks.

Krijn de Koning has taken casts from the Edinburgh College of Art’s collection and positioned them in new, unexpected groupings in the Sculpture Court. Here (above) they sit ahead of the scaffolding and platforms in which they are now submerged, changing and challenging the way we perceive these iconic works. De Koning builds structures which offer new possibilities to navigate and experience the space they inhabit.

Christine Borland and Brody Condon’s commission Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen is being installed in the burnt out Watchtower of the New Calton Burial Ground. This circular tower is one of several such structures built in Edinburgh in the 1820s to address a growing problem with ‘Resurrectionists’, individuals who dug up recently interred (not yet decomposed) bodies and sold them to the Anatomy School for dissection, and provides a highly resonant site for the artists’ exploration of ideas around decay and dereliction from the 18th century to the present day. This structure has recently been the recipient of TLC courtesy of Edinburgh World Heritage.

Ross Sinclair has created over 43,500 artworks for Edinburgh Art Festival this year: billboards, banners, posters, postcards, beermats, bags and 7” vinyl. These works are being installed and distributed over the coming week. Keep an eye out for them on the streets, in the pubs and outside the newsagents. Details of which spaces are taking part will be announced shortly. Identity (personal, collective, local, national and international) and its construction have remained central concerns in Sinclair’s practice. Scotland is of particular interest to the artist, precisely, as he has noted, because of the degree to which our sense of Scottish-ness and what it means to inhabit this country, comes as much from the imagination of poets and artists, as real lived experience. The results from this commission will be found on the streets, in the pubs and outside selected newsagents.

Sarah Kenchington’s Wind Pipes for Edinburgh are currently being fine-tuned. This giant one-of-a-kind instrument, installed in Trinity Apse, is made out of over 100 decommissioned organ pipes. This is the first instrument Sarah Kenchington has created that is to be played by other people other than herself. Wind Pipes for Edinburgh requires at least 6 willing bodies to man the bellows. The installation will be accompanied by a series of concerts from guest composers and children’s workshops, all of which are bookable on the Edinburgh Art Festival website.

Much like our Ross Sinclair commission, Peter Liversidge’s Flags for Edinburgh is to be installed gradually over this week in its various sites, building up to the full flying of flags by the beginning of August. Here is the Scottish National Gallery’s flag, newly installed on their roof with beautiful views of the castle behind. The artist invited anyone in the city with a flagpole to fly a white flag which bears the text: HELLO. The project stemmed from a desire to remind us that in its simplest sense, the flag too is a form of hello, “a greeting, an indication of intent be that benevolent or with malice”. It is, in the artist’s own words, “a simple welcome across the rooftops “.

These are but 5 of this year’s 10 Edinburgh Art Festival commissions, all of which are on show 1 August – 1 September. Read more at www.edinburghartfestival.com.

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