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The theme for this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival commissions programme has been Parley. As a result the programme has considered how art can be an agent of discussion, negotiation and debate. Various strands of event have been formed around this notion, led by our commissioned artists and guest speakers.

The first Parley Discussion, curated and led by Ross Sinclair, kick-started the festival as an open platform for exploration into discussion and performance with the audience being led through a series of conversations and collaborations. Live art was happening across Krijn De Koning’s Land as speakers such as Maria Fusco presented abstract narratives and explored the notion of Utopia. Performers such as Phoebe Amis lifted the experience with her incredibly high-pitched vocal abilities which echoed across the Sculpture Court. This certainly created an environment that took the viewers out of their initial comfort zones of experiencing visual arts. Lighthearted performances such as this were contrasted with the harsh social realism film Autumn Leaves, created by Kenyerse.  The whole experience felt like a whirlwind journey through discursive content which compliments Ross Sinclair’s commission Real Life and How to Live it in Auld Reekie, a series of informative graphics found all over Edinburgh.

Ross Sinclair performing at the opening Edinburgh Art Festival Parley Discussion. Photograph by Kat Gollock.

For the programme of talks that followed, each artist was partnered with a speaker whose specialty relates to the work in question without necessarily coming from an artistic point of view; this allowed for a huge scope of discussion covering social, political and historical contexts.

Robert Montgomery, the artist behind the Edinburgh Fire Poem, spoke with Ryan Van Winkle, poet, performer & podcaster, about their differing use and expression of poetry (Robert’s being bold, visual & public, whereas Ryan approaches the same subject with a personal caution, not intending for all his written words to be widely read).

Robert Montgomery, Edinburgh Fire Poem, 2013. Image courtesy of Dael Poulter.

Our final commission-based Parley was this week’s “in conversation” between Krijn De Koning, the artist behind the sculptural, architectural intervention Land in Edinburgh College of Art’s Sculpture Court, and Edward Hollis. Edward is based at Edinburgh College of Art and specializes in architecture so the conversation was particularly pertinent. They talked in depth about how artworks unite with the space they are located in; how they can expand the volume and impact of the chosen space. Uniquely, this conversation took place on the work in question.

Krijn de Koning and Edward Hollis in conversation on Land, one in a series of artist talks as part of Parley.

To see the work used physically and metaphorically as a platform for this conversation was perfectly representative of Parley. Krijn spoke honestly about all aspects of his work touching on the use, or lack thereof, of colour across his works as well as the physical process of transforming such a large piece from initial drawings and model works.

We are now sadly drawing to the end of our programme of discussions, but there is one remaining and we are certain to go out with a bang. Parley Discussion: Tae Think Again, Rethinking Identity in Contemporary Scotland, curated by Rachel Maclean and co-commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival and Edinburgh Printmakers, is this Saturday.

Similar to our opening Parley Discussion, the afternoon will see a programme of performances and speakers. Speakers include Craig Coulthard, David Cameron, David McCrone, Duncan Petrie and Denise Mina and the event will be chaired by Jim Tough with an introduction from Alastair Snow. Expect to delve into the history and future of Scottish identity with the added bonus of a screening of Rachel Maclean’s recent and highly acclaimed work The Lion and The Unicorn.

Venue for the Edinburgh Art Festival Parley Discussions. Krijn de Koning, Land, 2013, co-commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival and Edinburgh College of Art. Photograph by Kat Gollock.

Parley Discussion: Tae Think Again, Rethinking Identity in Contemporary Scotland (curated by Rachel Maclean), Saturday 31 August, 2-5pm, free.

Edinburgh College of Art
74 Lauriston Place
EH3 9DF

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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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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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