Diary #4 400 Women

Image courtesy of 400 Women

400 Women was shown to much acclaim in Shoreditch in 2010, has received a 5 star review from The List and is the Edinburgh Art Festival show that has been personally recommended to me the most times. It is being shown at the Canongate Venture on New Street, a street  I often pass through, each time lamenting the loss of the old Bongo club and artist studios and reflecting on the beautiful listed Victorian school house that sits empty. Today I had a very good reason to stop, so it was with high expectations and trepidation that I parked my bike in the old school yard.

Life through the lens #1

On the 5th August, and to the great delight of us little Solar Pavilion bees, the month of art festival events in St. Andrew Square Gardens kicked off with a talk from Lucy Whitaker (Senior Curator of Paintings, Royal Collection and co-curator of The Northern Renaissance: Dürer to Holbein exhibition at The Queen’s Gallery). Presenting a selection of key paintings including The Misers and François Clouet’s Mary Queen of Scots, LW’s talk was a captivating taster of a diverse, didactic and visually stunning exhibition.

Everything you ever wanted to know about modern art but were afraid to ask

Fast forward a week to the 11th of August and we Solar Pavilionites found ourselves in the surreal position of being able to ask Simon Groom, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, anything we have ever wanted to know about modern art but were afraid to ask. Putting himself under the lens that is Karen Forbes’ Solar Pavilion, SG made it his prerogative to answer all questions put to him. Sadly this is all that can be said. What happens in the Solar Pavilion remains in the Solar Pavilion.

Upcoming Edinburgh Art Festival events can be found here.

Diary #3 Josie Long at Inspace

Image courtesy of TriggerStuff.co.uk

Tuesday brought us the 3 rd in the series of Detours, “the series of impromptu happenings winding their way through the Edinburgh Festival”. Josie Long was at Inspace to respond to A Brief History of Privatisation by Ellie Harrison. Ellie’s work is part of Left to My Own Devices, a celebration of device art from artists and technologists working in Japan, China and Scotland. This is a joyful exhibition full of interaction, education and humour.

Explore The Edinburgh Art Festival…

Overwhelmed by the possibilities of this wonderful city in August? Me too. Let’s forget about all the other festivals for the time being and concentrate on the visual arts, and the wonderfully diverse programme of events and exhibitions that the Edinburgh Art Festival has put together. There are 42 shows this year so it is still a tall order to get through them all. To aid us in our cultural pursuits The Edinburgh Art Festival has very helpfully commissioned a map of the city by artist J Maizlish, pick it up from participating galleries, The Solar Pavilion or download it here.

This blog is an attempt to see as many of the exhibitions on offer this month and also to keep a diary of life through the lens that is the Solar Pavilion…

Diary #2 Aidan Moffat and Rauschenberg

Image courtesy of http://www.triggerstuff.co.uk

Lucky enough to have tickets for one of the hotly anticipated (free) Detours events last night I made my way down to the Botanics. It was a gorgeous evening to be in there after hours,  and what a shame it is that they close the gates so early during our long summer nights. I resisted the temptation to explore the gardens and headed directly to Inverleith House where Aidan Moffat was staging a performance in response to the current exhibition of works by Robert Rauschenberg: Botanical Vaudeville.

Diary #1 Creed, Calame and Mach

You can start your journey exploring The Edinburgh Art Festival, as I did on Saturday marvelling at Martin Creeds Work No.1059: The Scotsman Steps.

This was commissioned by The Fruitmarket Gallery for The Edinburgh Art Festival and is a permanent and very welcome transformation of the city landscape. Creed  has reclaimed what was previously a stinking and potentially dodgy thoroughfare. With each step clad in a different colour of marble from around the world, they are now an absolute joy to skip down on your way from North Bridge to Market Street.

The Edinburgh Art Festival has landed…

Artist, Culture Secretary and Festival Director, Image by David Grinly

The Edinburgh Art Festival launched on Thursday 4th August 2011. It started with the official opening of the Solar Pavilion in St Andrews Square. Despite the rain there was a great turn out of guests to listen to talks by artist Karen Forbes, director Sorcha Carey and CultureSecretary Fiona Hyslop.