tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/edinburgh-international-festival-29888/articlesEdinburgh International Festival – The Conversation2017-08-17T13:24:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/826122017-08-17T13:24:05Z2017-08-17T13:24:05ZHow to achieve Paul Auster’s literary genius? Start living uncomfortably<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182313/original/file-20170816-32632-pe1fyd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Any questions?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/novello-italy-may-28-writer-paul-78401968?src=WIuMrJLt4Jw4hCId7xxPDA-1-1">andersphoto</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Paul Auster takes the stage at the King’s Theatre <a href="https://www.eif.co.uk/2017/paulauster">in Edinburgh</a> to a great reception. He reads the opening pages of his latest work, the <a href="http://themanbookerprize.com/news/paul-auster-interview">Man Booker-longlisted</a> 4 3 2 1. It is a rare chance for his UK fans to see and hear the man up close and personal. </p>
<p>The 70-year-old graciously relates stories from his life as a writer in discussion with fellow American writer <a href="http://www.valleypressuk.com/author/35/nora_chassler">Nora Chassler</a>. Early on, he talks about growing up in a bookless household. The nine-year-old Auster got round this by visiting the public library, coming home with works by Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe. </p>
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<span class="caption">His latest.</span>
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<p>By his teens, he explains, he knew the writer’s life would be a struggle. His concerned father suggested he become a professor and write poetry as a hobby. Auster even attended a PhD interview, but fortunately a perceptive professor told him not to do it as he had talent as a writer. </p>
<p>You sense being a professor of literature would have been a terrible failure for Auster. He seems to associate such jobs with middle-class careerists and compromisers, prioritising comfort and respectability over the risks of genuine art. There is slight disdain as he (warmly) remembers a brilliant school friend who was expected to achieve wonderful things but merely ended up a Harvard professor – and the prototype for one of Auster’s literary characters. </p>
<h2>Writers and readers</h2>
<p>Auster talks about how books touch people, creating empathy by asking us to inhabit others. Novels used to ask us to sympathise with gods and kings, he says, but are now mainly about ordinary people. It’s democracy in action, an egalitarianism that Auster seems to embody both on stage and in his writing. His novels are all about the complexity of human existence and the struggle to understand, to survive, to feel meaning in life. </p>
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<p>One of the most important aspects of great fiction is often referred to as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Writer_s_Voice.html?id=6cU_LY8NfDYC">voice</a>. This is about speaking directly to the reader in a particular consistent style. The pleasure readers receive from “hearing” this voice is what makes them return to an author again and again. </p>
<p>Paul Auster’s mastery of voice is the main thing that makes his prose so captivating. He does it in a conversational American-English, much like his spoken voice, and from this musical prose his characters evolve. It feels so effortless – so spoken – but involves the sophisticated use of a number of literary techniques. </p>
<p>The clarity of his prose is striking, for instance. He recalls an influential conversation with the poet Edmond Jabѐs, in which Jabѐs insisted that syntactical innovations were not as subversive as clarity. Auster goes on to cite Kafka, another writer known for his clarity, as being “always with us”. In future, readers will probably say the same about Auster. </p>
<p>Another element often considered central to Auster’s work is chance. To give one of many examples, in <a href="https://homemcr.org/production/paul-austers-city-of-glass/">City of Glass</a> the main character Daniel Quinn is mistaken for Paul Auster, an event that propels Quinn into a world of uncertainty. During the Edinburgh discussion Chassler refers to coincidence instead of chance, but Auster rejects both labels. He is simply describing the unexpected, he says, something that happens to everyone. He suggests that those who don’t get this point don’t understand the “mechanics of reality”. </p>
<p>He wonders if people who read too many novels – presumably including many in the audience – end up imposing their own limited ideas of narrative onto what they read. They have a sense from fiction that chance occurrences are something remarkable, for example, so they misunderstand Auster’s approach to them. </p>
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<span class="caption">Auster and Nora Chassler.</span>
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<h2>Artistic anxiety</h2>
<p>Auster’s latest novel has clear resonances with his own life. The main character, Archie Ferguson, shares the author’s own chronology (born 1947) and his geography (New Jersey, New York, Paris and so on). Like the young Auster, Archie is struck by the power of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment as a teenager. </p>
<p>Yet Auster stresses that this character does things he himself never did – and indeed, the novel narrates Archie’s four alternate lives. It is a case of using one’s own life as a starting point, something we see repeatedly in Auster novels. </p>
<p>He began writing 4 3 2 1 at 66 years old, he explains, the age at which his father suddenly died. The thought that he too could drop dead made him work fast, finishing the 866-page novel in three and a half years rather than the expected five. This sense of self-reflection and being aware and anxious about artistic creation is another central theme in his work. Hence many of his characters are writers, living in their own bubbles, obsessed by their literary projects. </p>
<p>You certainly can’t deny Auster’s dedication to his art, both in the craftsmanship and the sheer volume: 18 novels plus numerous books of poetry, non-fiction and screenplays. He explains he pushed everything aside to commit to 4 3 2 1, reinforcing the sense of him as a serious working writer rather than a literary star. </p>
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<span class="caption">Auster: sweat not stardom.</span>
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<p>At the end of the event, a long, long line of fans queue to get books signed. Auster is particularly warm and courteous to them, but those with their own literary ambitions will be leaving with some new thoughts from the evening as a whole. </p>
<p>In short, commitment is everything; middle-class trappings must be put aside; true art is about vocation, isolation and obsession. Expect lots of reading and thinking; and relentless work of the kind that most people would find absurd because it involves, as Auster puts it, sitting in a room putting words on a piece of paper. </p>
<p>Yet it’s a worthwhile struggle, which for Auster has produced writing of the highest quality and beauty. Books like The New York Trilogy, Mr Vertigo, Timbuktu and 4 3 2 1 have touched people’s imaginations in the way Dostoevsky and Kafka touched the young Auster. </p>
<p>Finally, never rule out the unexpected. We ourselves queue and get to ask Auster a question after climbing the stage: “Since you’re in Scotland, are there any Scottish contemporary writers you enjoy?”</p>
<p>He seems startled. “What,” he says, so we ask again. </p>
<p>“Ah,” he says, putting his hands to his head. “I’m sure there are some great ones, but I can’t think of any”. He smiles. “I’m sorry. I live in my own little world, in my own little bubble.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>America’s answer to Kafka and Dostoevsky gets real at the Edinburgh International Festival.Alan McMunnigall, Tutor in Creative Writing, University of GlasgowPamela Ross, Tutor in Creative Writing and Literature, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/825412017-08-16T17:37:37Z2017-08-16T17:37:37ZHip-hop dance vs Donald Trump: how robot moves just got political<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182210/original/file-20170816-32661-19we7tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Strait-talkin'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBE</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Suddenly the dancers’ bodies freeze, caught in a white rectangle of light. Reduced to a state of shivering, their faces contort until what emerges is a scream. But this is a scream we do not actually hear. We only see it in the dancers’ gaping mouths against a looping sound of white noise – and then: utter silence.</p>
<p>This is ten minutes into <a href="https://www.eif.co.uk/2017/boyblue#.WZMAFmXSffY">Blak Whyte Gray</a>, the hip-hop dance production by east London collective <a href="http://www.boyblueent.com">Boy Blue Entertainment</a> showing at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-70-years-of-the-edinburgh-festival-has-done-for-the-arts-and-the-economy-82102">Edinburgh International Festival</a>. It is the closing moment of “Whyte”, the first part of the production, featuring three dancers in oversize straitjackets (see main image). They have been doing a robot-like dance, old-skool hip-hop style, limbs moving mechanically as if controlled by an outside force. </p>
<p>The screams feel like a reference to oppression, incarceration and the lack of safe spaces for minorities in the past and present. Think colonialism, slavery, segregation, Trump and Black Lives Matter – a powerful message in uncertain times, particularly in the wake of the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/charlottesville-virginia-the-history-of-the-statue-at-the-centre-of-violent-unrest-82476">violent scenes</a> in Charlottesville, Virginia. </p>
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<span class="caption">Trump speaking after Charlottesville.</span>
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<p>Michael “Mikey J” Asante, the show’s composer and artistic co-director along with choreographer Kenrick “H₂O” Sandy, later tells me that the imagery goes beyond questions of race or ethnicity, and is not a direct response to his experiences as a black man in the UK. “In our present political climate, with Trump and Brexit, there’s lots of people who can agree with the idea of their voice not being heard,” he says. </p>
<p>That can be interpreted in different ways, of course – not finding a voice, being denied a voice, not being listened to. But then political dance and theatre can often be powerful without making a clear-cut statement. As Asante puts it, politics is always a matter of perception.</p>
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<span class="caption">‘Mikey J’ Asante.</span>
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<p>While that opening segment was all about restriction set to an electronic accompaniment, the show takes us on a journey towards what Asante calls more “organic” movements and music. It culminates in a joyous celebration with eight dancers falling in and out of formation as if finally gaining control over their own lives and bodies. </p>
<p>Ghanaian masks tower over the dancers’ heads. The masks are another visually striking image, which Asante explains are used in traditional ceremonies in Ghana as vessels for ancestors. Thus it is not only repressed people in the present that are part of this movement for liberation and survival, but those from the past, too. </p>
<h2>Spectator power</h2>
<p>At other times, Blak Whyte Gray’s imagery remains intentionally abstract and cryptic. This is intended as a way of giving power to the spectators. “It is your experience in life that will determine how you see the political value in what you are watching,” says Asante. </p>
<p>In one sense, the silent scream embodies this idea: through its lack of a narrative voice, it guides spectators but does not seek to determine the outcome of their journey. It made me think of <a href="http://www.shobanajeyasingh.co.uk/works/material-men-redux/">Shobana Jeyasingh’s Material Men redux</a>, another excellent recent dance production that uses hip-hop and references colonial history. Material Men is a two-man show in which the political emerges out of the coming together of two different dance styles, classical Indian from one dancer and hip-hop from the other. </p>
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<p>Through the use of voice over narration and film at specific moments during the performance, Material Men takes great care to explicitly embed its dance moves within a larger history of indentured labour, forced migration and being part of the Indian diaspora. </p>
<p>This is no more or less powerful than Blak Whyte Gray’s sometimes more abstract approach, and we’re not talking about absolutes in any case: Material Men’s message doesn’t completely determine spectators’ interpretations of the show, and Blak Whyte Gray still guides its audience by what they see. </p>
<p>What the two productions show is the range of possibilities for making contemporary dance political. Material Men won <a href="http://www.shobanajeyasingh.co.uk/works/material-men-redux/">high critical praise</a> for its endeavours, while Blak Whyte Gray, which originally debuted in January at the Barbican in London, was <a href="http://www.olivierawards.com/nominations/">nominated</a> for an Olivier award. </p>
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<p>Just like theatre – and maybe more so because of the focus on physical movement – dance doesn’t even need a message to be political. It is there in the history of the bodily movements, with hip-hop, for example, being a cultural expression that combines Caribbean, African, South American and other traditions. </p>
<p>It is there because of the political climate of our times: while the American president <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/15/donald-trump-press-conference-far-right-defends-charlottesville">defends</a> far-right protesters, shows have been cancelled at the Edinburgh Fringe because Syrian artists <a href="https://www.dailysabah.com/music/2017/08/11/austrias-conchita-wurst-cancels-edinburgh-show-after-syrian-musicians-denied-visas">have been</a> denied visas. And it is there because theatre, performance and dance make artists and spectators share time together, thus bearing the promise of a community. Blak, whyte or gray, it becomes impossible to ignore what is happening in front of you. </p>
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<p><em>Blak Whyte Gray by Boy Blue Entertainment is at the Edinburgh International Festival on August 16-19.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Bachmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>East London collective Boy Blue Entertainment have taken their provocative show to the Edinburgh International Festival.Michael Bachmann, Lecturer in Theatre Studies, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/645042016-08-26T15:49:54Z2016-08-26T15:49:54ZCosì Fan Tutte: racial and sexual abuse should shock audiences, not the titillation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135658/original/image-20160826-17847-1gr2lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Forbidden love. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pascal Victor</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The new production of Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte’s classic opera <a href="http://www.eif.co.uk/2016/cosi">Così Fan Tutte</a> has attracted no shortage of controversy. After its premiere in Aix-en-Provence in France in July, the organisers of the Edinburgh International Festival <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jul/27/edinburgh-festival-offers-refunds-for-controversial-opera-before-opening">wrote to all ticket holders</a> offering a refund “due to the adult nature of some of the scenes” and its unsuitability for younger audiences. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-39017/biographie/">Christophe Honoré</a>, better known as a novelist and auteur film director, also took the bold step of relocating the action from 18th-century Naples to 1930s Eritrea in the era of Italian rule. </p>
<p>We certainly need more gritty and relevant opera productions. Opera in the 18th century was often used as a way of commentating on issues of the day, especially <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-buffa">the <em>opera buffa</em> style</a>, which distinguishes comic operas like Così Fan Tutte from the tragedies. There is no reason why present-day productions should not reflect this. </p>
<p>When it comes to staging a classic work, directors need to choose whether to follow the original in detail, using costumes and instruments to recreate a static idea; or try to capture the original’s impact at the time. Thankfully scholars and performers nowadays agree that both approaches are legitimate – Honoré’s production just leans towards the latter category. </p>
<h2>Then and now</h2>
<p>Così Fan Tutte is one of Mozart’s most popular operas, but it was not often performed in the 19th century because the subject matter was considered vulgar. It tells the story of two girls, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, whose soldier lovers are called away to war. </p>
<p>A man named Don Alfonso has made a bet with the two soldiers that the girls will not be faithful, claiming that women never are. The soldiers come back in disguise to try and seduce one another’s lovers to prove Don Alfonso wrong – though in the end they lose. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135656/original/image-20160826-17845-1nsaqw2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135656/original/image-20160826-17845-1nsaqw2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135656/original/image-20160826-17845-1nsaqw2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135656/original/image-20160826-17845-1nsaqw2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135656/original/image-20160826-17845-1nsaqw2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135656/original/image-20160826-17845-1nsaqw2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135656/original/image-20160826-17845-1nsaqw2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135656/original/image-20160826-17845-1nsaqw2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The soldiers and their lovers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edinburgh International Festival</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Honoré has added sexual subplots which serve to highlight the high sexism in da Ponte’s original plot, which is often glossed over. The original takes a very dim view of women’s morals and even intelligence – extreme even by 18th-century standards. In the new production, Honoré’s attempts to balance the ledger include a scene where the soldier Ferrando forces one of the chorus actors into sex when he discovers that Dorabella has been unfaithful to him. </p>
<p>Honoré continually seeks to emphasise the despicable nature of the male characters going out to trap their lovers through deception. The ending is particularly memorable in this respect. Where the women normally either return to their original lovers – or in some versions stick with the ones they “married” in disguise – Honoré’s Fiordiligi sings that she “deserves death” for betraying her fiancee. She then wanders around the stage with his musket to her chin as if to end her life until the final curtain drops. </p>
<h2>Black comedy</h2>
<p>Other new subplots comment on race and colonialism, often mingled with sexual abuse. Before the overture is a scene of two native girls dancing to a record playing a song criticising Mussolini. It is then torn off the record player and broken to pieces by one of the white soldiers, who goes on to rape one of the girls during the overture.</p>
<p>The Eritrean characters are mistreated throughout – mainly through heavy groping or outright rape. Race is also intermingled with the main plot when the soldiers, who disguise themselves as Albanians in the original, black up as Eritreans in this version. </p>
<p>This is about highlighting an underlying tragedy within the farce, but substituting colonialism and skin colour for the Albanian Muslim/Italian Christian antipathy in da Ponte’s version. Too often in the past, this has been masked by spectacular costumes and beautiful singing. </p>
<p>One patron on the opening night in Edinburgh caught the mood when she said: “This is not a ‘pretty-pretty’ production and that suits the story so much better.” </p>
<p>The programme notes were peppered with quotations on the nature of love and cruelty, paying homage to the opera’s subtitle “La scuola degli amanti” (the lovers’ school). Honoré writes in the notes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My intention is the same as [da Ponte’s]: that for the lightness and irresponsibility of the comedy of love you should substitute the shamelessness and cruelty of tragic passion attacked by humour. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135654/original/image-20160826-17884-1wm2fdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135654/original/image-20160826-17884-1wm2fdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135654/original/image-20160826-17884-1wm2fdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135654/original/image-20160826-17884-1wm2fdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135654/original/image-20160826-17884-1wm2fdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135654/original/image-20160826-17884-1wm2fdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135654/original/image-20160826-17884-1wm2fdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135654/original/image-20160826-17884-1wm2fdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tragedy and farce.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edinburgh International Festival</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Curtain call</h2>
<p>The casting draws together singers from all over the world, not all of whom were period specialists, but who blended in the ensembles like they had been singing together their entire lives. The acting from the main characters is outstanding. </p>
<p>The actors and singers of the chorus, drawn from the <a href="http://www.capetownopera.co.za/">Cape Town Opera</a>, add to the Eritrean setting and give poignant substance to Honoré’s revelations of the darker side of empire building. Meanwhile vibrato singing is kept to a decorative minimum, while the words were clear even in the upper circle. </p>
<p>Is the controversy justified? To some extent it will depend on your perspective. Apart from simulated sex and naked breasts at one point, most of the shock value was in the racial and sexual abuse. </p>
<p>You could sense that parts of the audience were shocked at white colonials groping black natives, albeit there are a lot of (non-racial) gropings in Mozart productions anyway. Friends and academics I have spoken to were not shocked – perhaps it depends on your exposure. In sum, it has probably been a bit of a storm in a teacup. But don’t let that detract from the performance as a whole. Honoré’s update of Mozart has important things to say about women and race. It is exactly what opera should be all about.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleanor Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New Mozart production set in 1930s Eritrea made headlines when ticket holders in Edinburgh were offered refunds – before the event.Eleanor Smith, Lecturer in Music, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/634602016-08-05T08:54:25Z2016-08-05T08:54:25ZEdinburgh festivals: how they became the world’s biggest arts event<p>The Edinburgh Festival is upon us again, a three-week spectacular that turns the Scottish capital into the biggest arts destination on the planet. It is in fact a number of different festivals, with the leading Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe returning for a 70th year since their inception in 1947. </p>
<p>From thousands of options this year you could take in Hollywood actor <a href="http://www.eif.co.uk/2016/cumming">Alan Cumming</a> singing cabaret; the latest Broadway version of Tennessee Williams’ <a href="http://www.eif.co.uk/2016/glassmenagerie">The Glass Menagerie</a>; or Icelandic rockers <a href="http://www.eif.co.uk/2016/sigurros#.V6IU5rzSegQ">Sigur Rós</a>. Top comedians <a href="https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/alistair-mcgowan-12th-impressions">Alistair McGowan</a> and <a href="http://www.bridgetchristie.co.uk/gigs/">Bridget Christie</a> will be treading the boards, while those who like their Scottish experience clad in tartan will want to catch the <a href="http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/tickets/">Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo</a>. Also not to be missed are the <a href="https://www.edbookfest.co.uk">Book Festival</a> and <a href="http://www.edinburghjazzfestival.com">Jazz & Blues Festival</a>. </p>
<p>Far from being confined to August, Edinburgh now holds 12 independently organised festivals throughout the year covering everything from <a href="http://www.tracscotland.org/festivals/scottish-international-storytelling-festival">storytelling</a> to <a href="http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk">science</a> to <a href="http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk">films</a> to the city’s world renowned <a href="https://www.edinburghshogmanay.com">Hogmanay</a> celebrations for New Year’s Eve. The city’s success as a leading cultural tourism destination is closely tied to the festivals’ ongoing strength and their enduring appeal to global audiences. This is why Edinburgh likes to <a href="http://www.edinburghfestivalcity.com/the-city">call itself</a> “the world’s leading festival city”. </p>
<p>Most of Edinburgh’s festivals are still very much on an <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517715000679">upward curve</a>. Where the Fringe, which is considered the world’s largest multi-arts festival, <a href="http://www.edinburghfestivalcity.com/assets/000/000/340/SQW_Economic_Impact_Summer_-_01.12.04_original.pdf?1411036230">sold</a> 790,000 tickets in 1996 and 1.5 million in 2004, <a>it sold</a> 2.3 million in 2015. The Edinburgh International Festival <a href="http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/.../item_74_-_summer_festivals_2015">has risen</a> from 418,000 to 441,000 in the same period; while Book Festival audiences <a href="http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/.../item_74_-_summer_festivals_2015">have rocketed</a> from 63,000 in 1997, the first year it became an annual event, to 350,000 last year. </p>
<p>With further audience growth <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/edinburgh-international-festival-set-to-smash-box-office-records-1-4192615">expected</a> this August, the city’s combined festival offering attracts a total of 4.5 million people a year. This is similar to the FIFA World Cup and only behind the Olympic Games – both of which take place every four years. </p>
<p>The Scottish economic impact of all these festivals has also gone <a href="http://www.edinburghfestivalcity.com/assets/000/001/964/Edinburgh_Festivals_-_2015_Impact_Study_Final_Report_original.pdf?1469537463">up and up</a>. Between 2010 and 2015, it rose from £253m to £313m as festival-goers spent money on everything from Edinburgh accommodation to visits to the <a href="http://www.nationalwallacemonument.com">Wallace Monument</a> in Stirling. Then there are the harder to measure social and cultural impacts, with 89% of local festival attendees <a href="http://www.edinburghfestivalcity.com/about/edinburgh-festivals-2015-impact-study">agreeing recently</a> that the festivals increased their pride in the city and positively influenced their attendance at other cultural events the year round. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133165/original/image-20160804-484-1tu8911.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133165/original/image-20160804-484-1tu8911.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133165/original/image-20160804-484-1tu8911.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133165/original/image-20160804-484-1tu8911.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133165/original/image-20160804-484-1tu8911.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133165/original/image-20160804-484-1tu8911.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133165/original/image-20160804-484-1tu8911.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133165/original/image-20160804-484-1tu8911.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Smile people!</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edinburgh Napier University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Future proofing</h2>
<p>So what’s the secret? Apart from the benefits of being a beautiful historic city that is small enough to navigate easily, much can be put down to these separate festivals working together – with support from the <a href="http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk">city council</a> and the Scottish <a href="http://www.scottish-enterprise.com">development</a>, <a href="https://www.visitscotland.com">tourism</a> and <a href="http://www.creativescotland.com/">arts</a> agencies. They carried out the festivals’ <a href="http://www.edinburghfestivalcity.com/assets/000/000/340/SQW_Economic_Impact_Summer_-_01.12.04_original.pdf?1411036230">first economic impact study</a> in 2004 in recognition of the rise of competitors such as <a href="https://www.sxsw.com">South by South West</a> in Texas; and all the festivals at <a href="http://www.montreal.com/tourism/festivals/">Quartier des Spectacles</a> in Montreal. </p>
<p>Next came a £75m investment in the city’s arts infrastructure: refurbishing the Usher Hall, Assembly Rooms and Kings Theatre; an extension for the Festival Theatre and new stands and seating for the Tattoo on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle. Following a <a href="http://www.scottisharts.org.uk/resources/publications/research/pdf/RES21%20Thundering%20Hooves%20Executive%20Summary.pdf">strategic review</a> in 2006, the festivals then formed an umbrella organisation, <a href="http://www.edinburghfestivalcity.com/about">Festivals Edinburgh</a>, which has helped them collaborate in things like marketing and lobbying. This is one reason for the <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14539834.Edinburgh_Airport_reveals_plans_for_new_flight_paths/">rise in air routes</a> to and from the city. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-27159614">More traumatic</a> has been the birth of the tram network, though one line has finally opened. </p>
<p>The August offering has also benefited from the Fringe’s ad-hoc approach to growth. The Fringe is not managed in a traditional sense but through an open-access ethos that allows anyone to register as a performer in its programme provided they can secure a suitable venue. It is a story of <a href="http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/8479/">organic growth</a> helping to create an iconic and trusted brand that has <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:327327/UQ327327_OA.pdf">arguably</a> become synonymous with the city itself. The name has even been adopted by other arts festivals like <a href="https://www.adelaidefringe.com.au">Adelaide</a>, <a href="http://www.vancouverfringe.com">Vancouver</a> and <a href="http://www.fringefest.com/festival/whats-on">Dublin</a> as a marker for alternative cutting-edge arts and open-access programming. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fringe benefits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edinburgh Napier University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Edinburgh is also seen as a vital destination for countries looking to improve their own arts festivals. The <a href="http://www.fringeworldcongress.com">Fringe World Congress</a> held its inaugural meeting in the city in 2012 to bring together Fringe directors and organisers, while the <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/cultural-skills-unit/projects/international-festivals-academy">British Council Edinburgh International Festivals Academy</a> launched in the city this year to share best practice for festivals. </p>
<h2>Glitch management</h2>
<p>None of this is to say that everything has proceeded perfectly in Edinburgh, of course. The Film Festival encountered <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jun/20/edinburgh-film-festival-what-went-wrong">severe difficulties</a> in 2011, for instance, while the Fringe had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/aug/23/edinburgh-fringe-festival-box-office">major issues</a> with its box office system in 2008. </p>
<p>Numerous competitors are <a href="http://mediacentre.visitscotland.org/pressreleases/thundering-hooves-2-0-launched-1164950">also growing strongly</a>. For example the biennial <a href="http://www.mif.co.uk">Manchester International Festival</a> in England, which has focused exclusively on new artists since it launched in 2007, <a href="http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/200109/council_news/7080/manchester_people_-_october_issue/6">saw a 5% rise</a> in attendance figures in 2015. Manchester is also investing heavily in venues such as The Factory for the future. Venice’s Biennale festival is another event that <a href="http://www.labiennale.org/en/biennale/history/">is seeing</a> strong growth. </p>
<p>Though these are much smaller and narrower than Edinburgh’s offering, the Scottish capital will undoubtedly continue to track them in its efforts to stay ahead. If it does this and the festivals keep working well as a group, Edinburgh will remain a world leader in staging international arts events.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63460/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Now in its 70th year, the Scottish capital’s arts spectacular is almost as big as the Olympics.Kenneth Wardrop, Visiting Research Fellow, Edinburgh Napier UniversityAnna Leask, Professor of Tourism Management, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/633482016-08-01T14:08:55Z2016-08-01T14:08:55ZWhy today’s art world owes a great debt to a certain networking genius<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132637/original/image-20160801-17187-1ansznf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Richard Demarco (left) with Joseph Beuys in the early 1970s.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Demarco European Art Foundation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The beginning of August means it is time for the <a href="http://www.eif.co.uk">Edinburgh International Festival</a>, during which the Scottish capital hosts one of Europe’s premier annual arts extravaganzas over three weeks. With impeccable timing, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has just launched <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/on-now-coming-soon/richard-demarco-and-joseph-beuys/">an exhibition</a> in tribute to one of the festival’s most enduring patrons – and a lynchpin in linking art movements in Europe and the UK for the past few decades. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.richarddemarco.org">Richard Demarco</a>, born in Edinburgh in 1930, has been involved in every Edinburgh festival, organising exhibitions and theatre events, since the early 1960s. He is many things – an artist himself, a curator, arts promoter and organiser – but perhaps his greatest strength is in facilitating relationships. </p>
<p>Over the years, he has cultivated artists, arts practitioners, curators and educators, among others. His <a href="http://www.demarco-archive.ac.uk/richard_demarco_biography.pdf">biography</a> reads like a catalogue of the contemporary art world, and the results of his networking have been immeasurable. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132641/original/image-20160801-17190-13mh4vo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132641/original/image-20160801-17190-13mh4vo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132641/original/image-20160801-17190-13mh4vo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132641/original/image-20160801-17190-13mh4vo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132641/original/image-20160801-17190-13mh4vo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132641/original/image-20160801-17190-13mh4vo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132641/original/image-20160801-17190-13mh4vo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132641/original/image-20160801-17190-13mh4vo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Neagu’s Tactile Object (Hand) (1970).</span>
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<p>To give one example, it was Demarco who brought the celebrated Romanian sculptor <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jun/28/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries">Paul Neagu</a> to the UK for the first time. Fleeing the repressive atmosphere of communist Romania, Neagu eventually naturalised in the UK and went on to teach some of the country’s most significant contemporary artists – <a href="http://www.antonygormley.com">Antony Gormley</a>, <a href="http://anishkapoor.com">Anish Kapoor</a> and <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rachel-whiteread-2319">Rachel Whiteread</a>. </p>
<p>Demarco has long seen it as his role to ensure Scotland maintained its connections with Europe, having originally been inspired by the divisions that scarred the continent following World War II. As a schoolteacher in Edinburgh after the war, he was struck by how many of his students were the result of Scottish women marrying Polish servicemen, for example. He <a href="http://studiointernational.com/index.php/richard-demarco-edinburgh-international-festival-joseph-beuys">sought to</a> highlight his kind of shared cultural heritage and saw the arts as a way of uniting the continent. </p>
<h2>Beuys is back in town</h2>
<p>The new Edinburgh exhibition showcases the fruits from another of Demarco’s special relationships, with the German artist Joseph Beuys. Beuys is one of the most influential contemporary artists in the world. His lasting legacy in performance art has been to shift the emphasis from the objects the artist produces to the life and activity of the artist and the act of creation. The revered performance artist <a href="http://marinafilm.com">Marina Abramović</a> cited seeing him in Edinburgh in 1970 as a key influence, for instance. </p>
<p>Beuys was there as one of 35 German artists who participated in Demarco’s <a href="http://www.eca.ac.uk/palermo/history_strategy_get_arts.htm">Strategy: Get Arts</a> exhibition (the title is a palinrome) for that year’s estival. Both men believed in seeing art in the everyday, and struck up a close relationship that drew Beuys back to Scotland several more times to perform until his untimely death in 1986. </p>
<p>Beuys was famous for his belief that anyone can be an artist, that we each have an inner creative spirit that for many remains untapped. On his way to the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he taught, Beuys would pick up the homeless, the street sweepers and the so-called “non artists” and bring them to class. For him, their participatation in the creative process was as important as anyone else’s. When Demarco invited Beuys to Edinburgh, Beuys’ choice of performance venue was not the city’s official art spaces or theatres but the Forresthill Poorhouse, a place for the deprived and ill. </p>
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<span class="caption">Joseph Beuys.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/5746208976">cea +</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Beuys created what he called <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/social-sculpture">“social sculpture”</a>: the art of the everyday, of living consciously and deliberately, considering every aspect of life as a work of art. It involves the participation of the viewer, for example in <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beuys-joseph-beuys-12-hour-lecture-edinburgh-arts-73-the-richard-demarco-gallery-ar00826">Beuys’s lectures</a>. It is not an object but an experience. </p>
<p>Beuys was also fascinated by Celtic culture and saw the Scottish Highlands as a spiritual and sacred place, from which he drew much inspiration. For his original 1970 visit, he created <a href="http://www.whitfordfineart.com/item/single/6866/joseph_beuys_the_scottish_symphony_celtic_kinloch_rannoch">Celtic (Kinloch Rannoch) Scottish Symphony</a>, a five-day performance (performed for four-hours each day) in collaboration with the Danish avant garde musician Henning Christiansen that was inspired by the Highlands’ Rannoch moor. During the performance Beuys delivered a lecture to the audience while drawing a series of letters and symbols on the chalkboard, a constant feature of many of his performances, while Christiansen <a href="https://ubusound.memoryoftheworld.org/beuys_joseph/Beuys_Christiansen_Scottische-Symphonie_02_1970.mp3">played his composition</a> on the piano.</p>
<h2>Boundary pushing</h2>
<p>Beuys was a man of extremes: he created marathon performances in Edinburgh, such as his <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beuys-joseph-beuys-12-hour-lecture-edinburgh-arts-73-the-richard-demarco-gallery-ar00826">12-Hour Lecture (1973)</a>, in which he speaks about things like art, creativity, socialism, democracy and freedom. In <a href="http://www.kidsofdada.com/blogs/magazine/35963521-joseph-beuys-i-like-america-and-america-likes-me">I Like America and America Likes Me (May 1974)</a>, he lived for three days in the René Block Gallery in New York City with a wild coyote. It was his attempt to access the animal primitive world of instinct, as an antidote to the anaesthetised world of capitalism. </p>
<p>Demarco has had a similar bent for the extreme. In 1980 he circumnavigated the British Isles on the sailing ship The Marques, not as a vacation but as a floating university. This was the final hurrah of Edinburgh Arts, Demarco’s international summer school modelled on <a href="http://www.blackmountaincollege.org/history/">Black Mountain College</a> in North Carolina, US, a centre for experimental art and activity in the first half of the 20th century. Edinburgh Arts was set up as a platform for artists from around the world to meet, collaborate, and develop innovative new art projects.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132634/original/image-20160801-17169-1u21yu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132634/original/image-20160801-17169-1u21yu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132634/original/image-20160801-17169-1u21yu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132634/original/image-20160801-17169-1u21yu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132634/original/image-20160801-17169-1u21yu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132634/original/image-20160801-17169-1u21yu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132634/original/image-20160801-17169-1u21yu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132634/original/image-20160801-17169-1u21yu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demarco more recently.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amy Bryzgel</span></span>
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<p>This bringing together of artists is Demarco through and through. In the same way as he brought Joseph Beuys to Scotland, Demarco’s talent for building relationships has produced international connections and works of art that would not have existed otherwise. That is his enviable legacy. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/on-now-coming-soon/richard-demarco-and-joseph-beuys/">Richard Demarco and Joseph Beuys: a Unique Partnership</a> is at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh until October 16. Admission free.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63348/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Bryzgel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Richard Demarco, aka Mr Edinburgh Festival, has been fostering vital UK links with artists around the world for decades.Amy Bryzgel, Senior Lecturer in Film and Visual Culture, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.