Edinburgh Art Festival Announces 2018 Pop-Ups and Events Programme

Edinburgh Art Festival, the only major annual festival dedicated to the visual arts within the UK, is delighted to announce details of its 2018 events programme. The programme includes a wide range of one-off performances, artist talks, tours and walks, musical events, family activities and workshops, as well as pop-up exhibitions and events in spaces and galleries across the city.

A highlight of the opening week’s programme, the keynote lecture for the Festival this year will be given by renowned Berlin-based artist duo, Elmgreen & Dragset. Special talks with artists, curators and directors will continue throughout Edinburgh Art Festival 2018, with highlights including Victoria Crowe in conversation at Golden Hare Books; Ben Harman, Director of Stills and curator of The days never seem the same; Grant Ritchie from Real Edinburgh at City Art Centre; artists Hans K Clausen & Kjersti Sletteland in conversation with Malcolm MacCallum at the Anatomical Museum; and a tour of Jupiter Artland by Director Nicky Wilson.

The Edinburgh Art Festival’s Commissions Programme includes a strong performative element this year, including Ruth Ewan’s new work, Sympathetic Magick, featuring magic performances from acclaimed socialist magician Ian Saville and other professional and amateur magicians at locations across the city (listed below). In the final weekend of the Festival, artists Birrell & Harding will present two live performances that form an integral part of their Festival commission, Fugue and Keep me like the echo, with Syrian composer and violinist Ali Moraly and other classical musicians. Each of the commissioned artists, including all four Platform: 2018 exhibitors, will present talks or give dedicated tours and introductions to their work at the Festival this year.

Each year, exhibitions and events conceived especially for Edinburgh Art Festival take place in pop up venues across the city, offering audiences a chance to discover new work in unusual spaces. Visitors will have the rare chance to see work by one of the most renowned contemporary video artists working today, Bill Viola, at the Parish Church of St Cuthbert; his Three Women will be on display for the duration of the Festival.

Specially conceived in celebration of the Travelling Gallery’s 40th anniversary, Gordon Douglas has created a new film installation for the bus, exploring the unique movement of the gallery and its archival histories. An exploration of the further-flung resonances of Scotland’s landscape will continue throughout a number of other pop-up exhibitions. 6°WEST will be presenting postal art inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s connection to the Isle of Erraid at the Scottish Arts Club; An Lanntair will showcase work produced on a new residency at sea in the Outer Hebrides; and Andy Cumming will debut experimental sound work and film documenting occult and shamanic performances at stone circles across the country by elusive researcher Adam Linklater.