Festival Grows up in World with High-Rise Tobacco Plants

Source from:  26 June 2008 news.scotsman.com By GARETH EDWARDS 06/27/2008

A TOWERING office block sprouting tobacco plants, private gardens transformed by sculptures and random video screens installed around the city centre will be just some of the stranger sights of this year's Edinburgh Art Festival. The programme was launched today, with the diverse selection of exhibits and events including a chance to listen to a modern version of a record sent into outer space or read quotes from the Bible on giant rotating lightbulbs. The first UK retrosADVERTISEMENTpective of Tracey Emin's work, being held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, is this year's major exhibition, and the controversial artist is expected to draw huge crowds. Among the more striking highlights on show around the city will be East Lothian-based artist Ettie Spencer's Tobacco House, which will see large tobacco crops growing out of the windows of St Margaret's House on London Road, as well as an outdoor crop grown behind the Craigmillar Arts Centre. The artist hopes that the installation in the former pensions building will raise questions about the issues of slavery, poverty and taxation surrounding the tobacco industry, as well as brightening up the "grim" building. She has not yet decided what will be done with the crop but will be taking suggestions from the public during the festival. Another event sure to catch the eye will be Boris Eldagsen's Spam: the musical, a series of video installations based on two years' worth of spam e-mails collected by the artist. As it is a work of "guerrilla" art, organisers were in the dark over exactly where, or what, the installations would be, but said they would include videos around the city centre. The videos will also be uploaded to internet sites in dozens of countries across the globe, in a bid to create the world's biggest piece of spam art. Big Things on the Beach is again working with the festival after last year's successful sandbag pyramids, and this year have organised Garden Gallery, which will see artists placing works in the gardens of private houses around Portobello beach. The homeowners have all given their permission, and the works will all be visible from the street, with tours being arranged to take people around the event. The festival includes more than 50 exhibitions, and features more than 120 events, including artists' talks, screenings, debates, tours and family projects. Director Joanne Brown said she was "overawed" by the quantity and quality of the work. She said: "I feel really proud of the way the city has taken on the Art Festival, and we now have so many galleries commissioning work and organising events, most of which are free to the public and which will really raise the profile of visual arts." The Edinburgh Art Festival runs from July 31 to August 31. BRUSH UP ON MAIN EVENTS Tracey Emin – 20 Years Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Aug 2-Nov 9 One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, below, this is the first retrospective exhibition of her work to be held in the UK. It will occupy the ground floor of the gallery and features work dating from 1993 to the present. • Big Things on the Beach Garden Gallery Portobello Promenade and High Street, Aug 2-30 This open-air exhibition will see local people play Garden Gallery "hosts", with artworks placed in private gardens as well as public spaces. • The Golden Record: Sounds of Earth Collective Gallery, Cockburn Street, Aug 1-Sep 13 The Collective Gallery has invited 116 artists to make a contemporary version of the Golden Record – sounds and images from Earth sent up on the two Voyager spacecraft – as the basis for this large-scale gallery exhibition, which also includes off-site performance events at the Fringe. • Ettie Spencer – Tobacco House St Margaret's House, London Road/Craigmillar Community Arts Centre, Newcraighall Road, July 31-Aug 31 Incorporating issues of social inclusion, education, health and economics, this installation will transform a derelict building into a "visually arresting" work of art, with a crop of tobacco growing on four floors. • Ink In the fields, Marchmont Crescent, Aug 2-31 Reflecting 500 years of printing in Scotland, this interactive installation sees five inscriptions taken out of five printed books from five different centuries, which will appear in five rotating lightbulbs filled with blue ink. Quotes from The Bible, as well as Arabian Nights, a songbook and books about natural history and botany are included. Enditem