11th edition. The festival features a month-long calendar of more than 40 exhibitions alongside special events, performances and tours across 30 of the city's museums, galleries and institutions, as well as artist-run, temporary and pop-up spaces. Highlights include: solo shows by Isa Genzken and Wim Delvoye; major exhibitions by Susan Hiller, John Byrne, Leon Morrocco and Tris Vonna-Michell; 'Where do I end and you begin' with curators and artists from across the Commonwealth; 'Generation' celebrating 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland; art historical surveys and exhibitions and performances showcasing the best emerging talent.
Edinburgh Art Festival, the UK’s largest annual celebration of visual art, is pleased to
announce details of its 2014 festival programme. This year, the festival features a month-long
calendar of more than 40 exhibitions alongside special events, performances and tours
across 30 of the city’s museums, galleries and institutions, as well as artist-run, temporary
and pop-up spaces. In its 11th year the festival will bring together over 100 leading and
emerging Scottish and international artists. As part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme,
and during the year of Homecoming Scotland, this year's programme will also see the
presentation of a major international group exhibition bringing together five curators and 20
artists from across five Commonwealth countries.
Highlights include:
The first solo exhibitions in Scotland by leading contemporary artists Isa Genzken
and Wim Delvoye, and major exhibitions by Susan Hiller, John Byrne and Leon
Morrocco, together with a new commission by Tris Vonna-Michell
An international exhibition programmed by Edinburgh Art Festival, Where do I end
and you begin, bringing together curators and artists from across the
Commonwealth, including Amar Kanwar and Shilpa Gupta
A wave of new exhibitions opening as part of GENERATION, a landmark event
celebrating 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland, including exhibitions by Katie
Paterson and Mick Peter at Jupiter Artland, Dalziel + Scullion at Dovecot
Studios, alongside group presentations of key contemporary Scottish artists at City
Art Centre and Talbot Rice Gallery
In-depth art historical surveys including an overview of American Impressionism
featuring works by Degas, Monet, Cassatt, Sargent and Whistler; the presentation
of drawn and painting work by renowned art critic and artist John Ruskin; and the
only UK showing of Chinese treasures from Ming: The Golden Empire
A group show of newly-commissioned work at New Media Scotland, and exhibitions
and performances showcasing the best emerging talent at Interview Room 11,
GARAGE, the Glasshouse at Lauriston Castle and Edinburgh College of Art,
amongst others
Sorcha Carey, Director of Edinburgh Art Festival, said:
“As the only major annual festival dedicated to the visual arts within the UK, Edinburgh Art
Festival occupies a uniquely important place in the cultural calendar. Our 2014 programme
continues to provide audiences with an unrivalled opportunity to immerse themselves in the
very best historic and contemporary art, with an extraordinarily rich series of solo and group
presentations of Scottish contemporary artists alongside exhibitions of leading international
artists, many showing in the UK for the very first time.”
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, said:
"The Edinburgh Art Festival is a vital component in the success of Edinburgh’s wider festival
programme, celebrating some of the very best visual art from Scotland and around the world.
In the year of Homecoming, it promotes our fantastic culture, exceptional talent and
reputation as a creative nation to a truly global audience.
“This year’s programme is a vibrant, exciting and diverse mix of exhibitions, events and
publicly sited artworks. The Scottish Government’s support of the Generation programme
underlines our commitment to supporting the arts, and shows our cultural ambitions for
Edinburgh and Scotland as a whole are unmatched.”
Janet Archer, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland said:
“In 2014, the Edinburgh Art Festival has a reach and a momentum which is infectious.
Whether it is in one of the city’s internationally known venues or a pop up space you will be
able to experience fascinating work by acclaimed and emerging artists from Scotland and
across the world. This is a programme where you can plan what to take in, a programme you
can experience on the spur of the moment. A month long calendar of events to look forward
to and savour.”
Paul Bush OBE, Chief Operating Officer for EventScotland, said:
“Scotland is the perfect stage for events, and the Edinburgh Art Festival is a hugely important
part of Scotland’s annual festival offering with the impressive programme giving both new and
established artists a platform to express their work. Supported by EventScotland and
Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Commonwealth Exhibition at City Art Centre will see
curators from five Commonwealth countries, present more than 20 emerging contemporary
artists in the year Scotland will welcome the world to the Glasgow 2014 Games.”
Cllr Steve Cardownie, Edinburgh’s Festivals and Events Champion said:
"The Edinburgh Art Festival has delivered another fantastic and diverse programme for 2014,
which includes exciting new artworks for public spaces in the capital. As the largest annual
visual arts festival in the UK, the EAF brings the very best in the visual arts from across the
globe to Edinburgh, greatly enhancing the city’s excellent reputation as home to the world’s
greatest festivals. This year it is especially exciting to hear that so many artists from across
Commonwealth countries will be taking part to celebrate Glasgow 2014.”
Major Exhibitions by Leading Contemporary Artists
Inverleith House will present new work by leading contemporary artist Isa Genzken in her
first solo exhibition in Scotland. Summerhall’s extensive programme of exhibitions will also
feature Belgian neo-conceptual artist Wim Delvoye’s first solo exhibition in Scotland; recent
video work by acclaimed artist Susan Hiller; and new works by leading French conceptual
artist Claude Closky.
An exhibition of new work by Scottish artist John Byrne will be displayed at Bourne Fine Art
and, in celebration of its new location on Calton Hill, Collective has commissioned Tris
Vonna-Michell to make the next in its series of freely downloadable ‘Observers’ Walks’.
Open Eye Gallery will survey five decades of paintings by Leon Morrocco, and Stills
Gallery will feature an exhibition curated by Owen Logan reflecting on the nature of peace
and security in the modern world, featuring works by artists including Martha Rosler.
‘Where do I end and you begin’
As part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, and during the year of Homecoming
Scotland, Edinburgh Art Festival, in collaboration with City Art Centre, presents an
extensive group exhibition of international contemporary art. Held across four floors of the
City Art Centre, Where do I end and you begin will bring together five curators and 20 artists
from across the Commonwealth, introducing many international artists to UK audiences for
the first time.
Highlights of the exhibition include the neon piece Where do I end and you begin by Indian
artist Shilpa Gupta; an evolution of the critically-acclaimed Sovereign Forest, the highly
poetic film installation by distinguished Indian artist Amar Kanwar; a newly commissioned
site-specific wall installation by Nigerian-born, London-based Mary Evans; and a video
installation by New Zealand artist Steve Carr. Johannesburg-based artist Mary Sibande,
internationally acclaimed for her large scale figurative sculptures featuring the artist’s alter
ego Sophie, will create a new work for the exhibition, while Canadian artists Brian Jungen &
Duane Linklater show their recent film Modest Livelihood for the first time in the UK.
GENERATION in Edinburgh
The festival sees the opening of several new projects as part of GENERATION, a landmark
event celebrating 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland, which continues at numerous arts
venues across Scotland, supported by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Glasgow
2014 Cultural Programme. Jupiter Artland will present new work by Glasgow-based Mick
Peter and daily performances of Katie Paterson’s Earth-Moon-Earth (Moonlight Sonata
Reflected from the Surface of the Moon), coinciding with her solo show at Ingleby Gallery,
which will include recent works Fossil Necklace and Second Moon. Artist duo Dalziel +
Scullion will respond to the architecture and geography of Edinburgh and the Isle of Lewis in
a two-part exhibition at Dovecot Studios and its sister location in An Lanntair, whilst
Counterpoint at Talbot Rice Gallery is a multi-disciplinary group show exploring the work of
eight artists, including Ross Birrell, Keith Farquhar, Alec Finlay and Craig Mulholland.
Also part of GENERATION, the National Galleries of Scotland will host a multi-venue
survey in GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland. The City Art Centre will
examine the theme of architecture and the built environment in recent Scottish art, whilst
OPEN DIALOGUES at the Royal Scottish Academy will showcase six artists from its
successful RSA New Contemporaries exhibitions. The Fruitmarket Gallery will host a major
retrospective of work by Jim Lambie, whilst Collective will reflect on 20 years of Ross
Sinclair’s ‘Real Life’ project a year after his award-winning multi-work commission for the
2013 festival. A group exhibition of new and recent work by artists Laura Aldridge, Craig
Coulthard, Mandy McIntosh, David Sherry and Hannah Tuulikki will open in Edinburgh
and travel the length and breadth of Scotland with the Travelling Gallery, and Edinburgh
Sculpture Workshop will present a key exhibition by Scottish artist Paul Carter shown in
Scotland for the first time.
Art Historical and Survey Exhibitions
American Impressionism: A New Vision at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
will trace the discovery of Impressionism by American artists in the late 19th century, featuring
classic paintings by artists including Degas, Monet, Cassatt, Sargent and Whistler. The
Scottish National Portrait Gallery will present John Ruskin: Artist and Observer, an
exhibition of the renowned art critic and artist’s drawn and painted work, and the National
Museum of Scotland will also present a remarkable collection of original artefacts in the only
UK showing of a collection of Chinese National treasures from the Ming Dynasty in Ming:
The Golden Empire.
Poetry for the Palace: Poets Laureate from Dryden to Duffy at The Queen’s Gallery,
Palace of Holyroodhouse will explore the 350-year history of poets laureate, including
illustrations by textual artist Stephen Raw of poems by Carol Ann Duffy, the current Poet
Laureate, while Edinburgh Printmakers will present new commissions by Scottish artist
Calum Colvin alongside his archive of photographic transparencies compiled over the past
28 years.
The Best of Early and Mid-Career Artists
EAF is committed to showcasing early and mid-career artists in some of the city's most
interesting permanent, temporary and pop-up venues. For the 2014 festival, New Media
Scotland will present new works by artists experimenting with technology in art,
commissioned by the organisation’s Alt-w Fund, including Hadi Mehrpouya, Robert Powell,
3Donna Leishman and Calum Stirling; whilst Edinburgh’s newest project space Interview
Room 11 will present solo exhibitions by Glasgow-based artist Janie Nicoll and Edinburgh-
based Italian artist Alessandro di Massimo.
Rhubaba Gallery and Studios will explore magic and misdirection through performance
artist and writer Augusto Corrieri; whilst multi-media project Out of Left Field will be
presented at Forest Centre Plus. Other highlights will include site-specific, collaborative work
at GARAGE and an exhibition of new work by international collective Captain Lightfoot at
The Glasshouse at Lauriston Castle.
Further EAF exhibitions will include a performative residency by Alice Finbow, a London-
based filmmaker and photographer, at the Manna House Bakery; Edinburgh College of
Art’s annual degree show from MA and MSc students; and The House of Adelaida Ivanovna,
an exhibition and series of performances by Berlin and London-based Villa Design Group.
Image: Owen Logan, The National Anthem Band from the series Masquerade: Michael Jackson Alive in Nigeria, 2001-2005, Courtesy the photographer.
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Different venues - Edinburgh