Edinburgh Art Festival Prepares To Open Vital 2016 Event

Edinburgh Art Festival

The Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) one of the high points of the Summer art season, opens tomorrow presenting work by 250 artists, in more than 40 exhibitions across 30 of Edinburgh’s museums, galleries and artist-run spaces, including seven new commissions as part of the 2016 Commissions Programme. As the UK’s largest annual festival of visual arts, the programme combines ambitious presentations of Scottish and international contemporary art alongside major solo and survey shows of artists from the 20th century and historic movements. The 2016 festival also features numerous performances, guided tours, workshops and talks by some of the world’s leading artists and curators throughout the month of August.

The 2016 Events Programme, featuring one-off artist performances, guided walks, live musical events, family activities and workshops, and talks and tours by some of the world’s leading artists and curators in Edinburgh for the festival.

This is Scotland’s ‘Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design’, the theme of EAF this year, More Lasting than Bronze, is the launch point for a series of tours and talks offering insights into the impulse to memorialise, as well as Edinburgh’s rich collection of monuments. These include ‘Monument Walks’, a series of programmed guided walks across Edinburgh, each offering insights into the city’s monuments, and their relationship to our commissions programme; as well as artist’s talks and discussions by Bani Abidi, Graham Fagen, Roderick Buchanan, the 2016 Platform artists, and a presentation on the ‘monumental’ from Kenny Hunter at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. The Festival Endnote 2016 is a rare opportunity to hear from the internationally renowned artist, architect and filmmaker, Alfredo Jaar, on his practice and thoughts on EAF’s programme of commemoration.

The events programme also includes tours and talks by artists, curators and directors, including renowned French artist Christian Boltanski discussing his new permanent commission for Jupiter Artland, as well as talks by Hayley Tompkins and Caroline Mesquita at Jupiter; a series of talks and lectures from Canadian duo Matt Donovan and Hallie Siegel at Edinburgh Printmakers; and further events around exhibitions Jo Spence at Stills, Alice Neel at Talbot Rice Gallery, The Scottish Endarkenment at Dovecot Gallery and I still believe in miracles: 30 years of Inverleith House.

Artist performances include a new poetic, spoken word artwork by Ruth Barker; Beverley Hood’s Eidolon at the Western General Hospital; a two day event celebrating women ins the arts with Deveron Arts and The Walking Institute; and Platform 2016’s Proudfoot and Piasecka exploring the destructive force central to creation. 

On the occasion of the unveiling of the major new commission, Dazzle Ship Scotland, Edinburgh Art Festival is delighted to announce details of the seven new commissions that will form the 2016 Commissions Programme, bringing together artists working in Scotland and internationally. In Scotland’s ‘Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design’, the programme explores one of the most important points of intersection for art and architecture in our city: the monument.

Founded in 2004, Edinburgh Art Festival is the UK’s largest annual festival of visual art, offering the chance to experience the best contemporary Scottish, UK and international artists in the context of exhibitions of some of the most important artists and movements of the 20th Century and historical periods. Attracting nearly 300,000 attendances in 2015, Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) brings together the capital’s leading galleries, museums and artist-run spaces, alongside new public art commissions by established and emerging artists and an innovative programme of special events. Edinburgh Art Festival is a charitable organization supported by Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council.

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