MAKING sense of the world around us in uncertain political times is the theme for five specially commissioned projects that are part of the Edinburgh Art Festival.
Five leading contemporary artists have been selected as part of the 2019 Commissions Programme which this year is entitled Stories For An Uncertain World.
Four emerging Scottish-based artists been also been selected as part of Platform: 2019, the festival’s dedicated showcase for emerging talent.
Edinburgh Art Festival is a major platform for the visual arts as part of Edinburgh’s world-famous festival season, the 16th edition of which runs from July 25.
It brings together the capital’s leading galleries, museums and artist-run spaces and features internationally established names alongside emergent talent from Scotland, the rest of the UK and beyond.
The Commissions Programme each year supports Scottish and international artists to create ambitious new work specifically for the festival. This year it looks to storytelling as one of the fundamental ways in which we make sense of the world around us, reflecting on the mood of uncertainty predominating UK politics.
As part of it, internationally acclaimed artists Nathan Coley, Alfredo Jaar, Rosalind Nashashibi, Sriwhana Spong and Corin Sworn will present new projects at sites across the city
“United by a shared interest in language and storytelling, the artists participating in Stories For An Uncertain World look to the past as well as to imagined futures, to uncover stories which speak to us in the precarious present,” said Sorcha Carey, director of Edinburgh Art Festival.
“The thematic finds echoes too in Platform: 2019, bringing together a new generation of artists based in Scotland with works which use fiction and humour to explore issues ranging from embellishment and identity to sustainability and fandom.”
Platform: 2019 will support four artists based in Scotland at the start of their careers to make and present new work. They are Anna Danielewicz, Joanne Dawson, Harry Maberly and Suds McKenna.
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said the event “demonstrates why the Edinburgh Art Festival has become a highlight of the festival season”.
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