Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF26) has concluded another successful year, bringing alternative perspectives, archival deep-dives, site-specific commissions, and international collaborations to venues across the breadth of the city and welcoming over 190,000 visitors across Edinburgh.
From its new permanent space at 92 Constitution Street to pop-up performances and partner galleries, EAF26 highlighted a rich tapestry of queer histories, community photography, sound performances, and major contemporary art installations across Scotland’s capital.
The festival concluded with a major presentation by Lawrence Abu Hamdan of Zifzafa. Developed alongside researchers at Earshot, the first non-profit dedicated to audio for justice, Zifzafa is a major body of work investigating the impact of noise pollution and green colonialism in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (Jawlan). The investigation contests the proposed construction of 31 massive industrial wind turbines near civilian homes, mapping out the acoustic footprint that threatens to make the area uninhabitable. The performance was scored by Busher Kanj Abu Saleh, and performed live by saxophonist Amr Mdah and Renate Lurdesa Baumane.
“This edition was a really wonderful experience. We were so thrilled to welcome everyone to our permanent home in Leith; our neighbourhood was full of interesting conversations, with new neighbours and guests, artists and collaborators from across the globe. Shows by artists like Sandra George, Del LaGrace Volcano and Catherine Opie opened the doors for us to look at a huge range of photographic archives.
Meanwhile, a sold out Jupiter Rising punctuated our half way point, bringing the Artland alive with music, performance and karaoke curated by Sgàire Wood. We are also thankful to our partners who welcomed art go-ers to sculpture in Newhaven, the Old Town, and Fountainbridge, photography in the city and across the streets, one off moments around art works and in our beautiful theatres and spaces, to collaborating with us to show films, produce sound works, and throw parties” — Kim McAleese, Director