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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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Our programme of public art commissions for this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival is titled Parley, exploring both art that depends on dialogue for its realization and art’s capacity to create dialogue.

Opening with Ross Sinclair and company pondering the role of the artist and closing with a discussion of contemporary Scottish national identity, Parley events also traverse a puppet play, performances and ‘in-conversation’ pieces by our 2013 commissioned artists. We’re discussing them already!

Parley events are bookable on www.edinburghartfestival.com and are all free with the exception of the Wind Pipes for Edinburgh concerts. Spaces are limited.

Here are just some of the highlights.

Parley Discussion: Real Life Parledonia (curated by Ross Sinclair)
2 August, 2-5pm

Artist Ross Sinclair adopts the role of ring master to direct a loose array of speakers, performers and artists, in debating questions such as: ‘what is Parley? And what is Caledonia? And how might they come together locally, nationally and internationally? What is the job description of ‘artists’ in a small damp Northern European country in 2013? What is a ‘creative life’ and how can the idea be articulated by ourselves and others at this particularly complicated moment in time?’.

Parley for Power
2 August, 5:30-6pm

Based in a world where cats and dogs engage in wild debate over issues of identity and independence. A vote will determine whether they rid themselves of the moniker of ‘pet’ and all associated ties to their petitude.

Parley for Power is a short play written for the festival by poet Michael Pedersen (Neu! Reekie!) and award-winning playwright/novelist Alan Bissett.

Parley: Katri Walker in conversation with Noe Mendelle
6 August, 6-7pm

Katri Walker will be in conversation with Noe Mendelle, an internationally renowned documentary maker and Director of the Scottish Documentary Institute.

Parley Discussion: Is all this hot air worth it?
10 August, 1:30-4pm

Artistic activity produces tonnes of CO2 – particularly the international movement of artists, artworks and audiences. What responsibility do artists and arts organisations have to use the form, content and framing of their work to address climate change? With a provocation from the artists Collins & Goto, Creative Carbon Scotland’s discussion invites contributions from across the arts.

Parley: Peter Liversidge and Brigadier David Allfrey MBE
13 August, 1-2pm

Peter Liversidge will be in conversation with Brigadier David Allfrey MBE, producer of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Parley: Robert Montgomery in conversation
13 August, 6-7pm

Robert Montgomery’s conversation partner will be announced shortly.

Parley: Daniel Padden and Peter Nicholson (The Complaints Choir) in conversation with Katie Overy
20 August, 7-8pm

We’ve just announced on our website that Daniel Padden and Peter Nicholson of The Complaints Choir of Edinburgh will be in conversation with Katie Overy, Senior Lecturer in Music Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. The Complaints Choir invites people to come together to share their complaints, and sing them out loud.

This is one of a series of events every Tuesday during the festival where our commissioned artists are engaged in conversation with specialists from other disciplines that provide a counter-point to the artist’s practice and interests.

Parley: Krijn de Koning in conversation with Edward Hollis
27 August, 6-7pm

Krijn de Koning will be in conversation with Edward Hollis, author of ‘The Secret Lives of Buildings’ and ‘The Memory Palace: A Book of Lost Interiors’.

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

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.

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