Satellites is Collective’s development programme for emerging creative practitioners based in Scotland. In 2023, four creative practitioners at a pivotal point in their practice will be selected to participate in a peer development programme.
The programme includes discussions, workshops, events, retreats and public presentations of new work.
As part of our Collective Play programme, we are excited to invite emerging artists and practitioners with an interest in child-led approaches to play, nature and the outdoors to submit a proposal for our Lead Artist opportunity.
The Lead Artist will devise and deliver one year of Friday Play sessions, as well as one Play Weekend.
2-3pm: In conversation: Sebastián Díaz Morales and Luciano Piazza 3-4pm: Opportunity to watch Smashing Monuments and enjoy refreshments.
Exhibition dates 25 March – 11 June 2023
Join us for the opening ofSmashing Monumentsby Sebastián Díaz Morales, from 2–4pm on Saturday 25 March 2023.
Originally comissioned for documenta fifteen, Smashing Monuments explores the relationships we have with urban monuments. The film follows five members of the Indonesian art collective ruangrupa as they walk the streets of Jakarta, engaging in one-sided conversations with the monuments around them.
The afternoon will include an ‘in conversation’ event with Sebastián and fellow artist Luciano Piazza, who has created an accompanying essay for the exhibition.
Sebastián and Luciano will discuss how urban developments, along with the passage of time, impact our everyday relationships with the statues and monuments that populate our cities. Afterwards, there will be an opportunity to watch the film and enjoy refreshments.
Capacity for the artist talk is limited, so please book your free ticket here if you wish to attend.
All welcome from 3.00pm to view the work.
Access information about our site can be found here.
Smashing Monuments produced with financial support of documenta fifteen, Mondriaan Fonds and The Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Dandelion’s cubes are going on tour, starting on top of the iconic Calton Hill in Edinburgh. Special cargo bikes, featuring Dandelion’s unique ‘growing cubes’ called ‘Cubes of Perpetual Light’, will be touring Scotland in Dandelion’s latest initiative to bring music, nature, art, science, community food growing and more, to as many people as possible.
The Cubes Bike Tour forms part of Dandelion, a major creative programme demonstrating the power of collective action through an ambitious ‘grow your own’ initiative that aims to reach hundreds of thousands of people throughout Scotland and further afield this summer.
The creative programme has been following the arc of the growing season, spanning from April to September 2022, bringing together music and art with science and technology to inspire people to ‘Sow, Grow and Share’ music, food, ideas and stories.
Commissioned by EventScotland and funded by the Scottish Government, Dandelion is Scotland’s contribution to UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK.
A touring fleet of cargo bikes displaying Dandelion’s growing cubes – miniature vertical farms – will travel the Highlands and Lowlands throughout August.
Four custom-made, electrically assisted bikes – each carrying a cube – will visit ten towns and cities, stopping at school playgrounds, green spaces, town centres, and Dandelion’s Unexpected Gardens, among other locations.
The bikes team will also be giving away free seeds to encourage people to grow their own food. As we come to grips with the impacts of climate change, the need to travel sustainably have never been more important, and the cargo bikes show one way to what is possible.
The bikes also embed active travel at the core of the tour by cycling across the country, as Scotland prepares to host the UCI Cycling World Championships in 2023.
The 1m x 1m cubes are designed to foster accelerated plant growing and have been developed to grow hundreds of seedlings under LED light, combining design craft, traditional horticultural expertise and technological innovation.
The Dandelion team will also be giving away free seed packets and sharing their expertise, so that everyone can grow their own herbs at home and also find out more about Dandelion’s Harvest celebrations in September.
At each stop, the cubes will play new music specially commissioned for Dandelion by Scottish and international artists, inspired by the natural world and can only be heard at the sites, including Vendanth Bharadwaj, Arooj Aftab & Maeve Gilchrist, 2022 Mercury-nominated Fergus McCreadie, Ravi Bandhu, Trio Da Kali, and amiina & Kathleen MacInnes.
Featuring programmable, immersive lighting integrated with speaker systems designed to best showcase the new music playing from the cubes. Each new music piece is commissioned by Dandelion with additional support for international work from British Council Scotland.
Neil Butler, Director of Festivals and Events at Dandelion, said: ‘We can’t wait for the Cubes Bike Tour to begin. It’s a great way to share Dandelion’s message and reach people in locations throughout Scotland.
“The bikes will be travelling all over the country so we’d love to see people coming along to witness some of the magic, get seeds to grow your own at home and hear more about our upcoming Harvest celebrations.’
Paul Bush OBE, Visit Scotland Director of Events said:“The Dandelion programme is creating an incredible array of events across Scotland this summer, each finding unique moments to connect with people all over the country through growing.
“The Cubes Bike Tour is another engaging example of this, taking Dandelion right into the heart of locations right across Scotland to be enjoyed by locals and visitors alike.
“It’s also fantastic to see events like this embed active travel as part of their programme, and it’s particularly exciting to see biking at the core of this tour as Scotland gears up to celebrate cycling on the world-stage in one year’s time, hosting the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships”.
Cosmo Blake, Network Engagement Manager at Sustrans Scotland “We are delighted to be able to support Dandelion by supplying four cargo bikes for the Cubes Bike Tour this August.
“By utilising the National Cycle Network, the UK-wide network of signed paths and routes for walking, wheeling and cycling, the tour will be able to reach communities sustainably. With the ever-present impacts from climate change, the importance of both food and transport sustainability are becoming more and more relevant.
“Bringing together active travel, growing, and the arts is a fantastic way to demonstrate the huge breadth of possibilities of cycling for transport as well as for leisure.”
The Cube Bikes will be passing through the places below:
Edinburgh, Tue 2 August
1pm, Edinburgh Botanic Gardens
4pm, Unexpected Garden, Lauriston Farm
Hawick, Wed 3 August
4pm, Hawick Museum, Wilton Lodge Gardens
Stranraer, Fri 5 August
1pm, Unexpected Garden, Harbour Street
Greenock, Sat 6 August
10.30am, Battery Park and along the esplanade
11.30am, Beacon Arts Centre
2pm, The Drying Green, Inverkip Road
Glasgow, Sun 7 August
10.00am, Govan Cross
12noon, Glasgow Science Centre
Forres, Tue 23 August
1pm, Market Square
7pm, Grant Park
Inverness, Wed 24 August
5.30pm, City Centre
Alness, Thu 25 August
Schools tour only
Wick, Fri 26 August
11am, Harbour tour
1pm, Market Square
Thurso, Sat 27 August
1pm, Town Centre
7.30pm, Unexpected Garden
Further locations to be announced throughout August.
For more information and location updates, please see: www.dandelion.scot
Dandelion is commissioned by EventScotland, funded by the Scottish Government and is part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK. The bikes were commissioned for Dandelion by Sustrans. The Cube Bikes Tour route will follow the National Cycle Network where available. https://www.sustrans.org.uk/national-cycle-network/
Join us on Saturday 25 June from 2—5pm to celebrate the opening of The Beast, a new work byRuth Ewan.
Ruth Ewan presents an unearthly moral tale centred on the obscured history of the iconic Scottish/American steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. This new installation tells the story of Carnegie’s ruthless accumulation of wealth and the place he bought in history via an uncanny encounter with his palaeontological namesake, Diplodocus carnegii.
The Beast comprises of a new animation and archival material which explores intersecting ideas around ecology, extinction, wealth, power, time and the history of capitalism.
The script for the new animation has been developed with Marxist magician Dr Ian Saville. The conversation – featuring the voices of Dave Anderson as Carnegie and Keeley Forsyth as Diplodocus carnegii – reveals a provocative and layered history.
This is an open event and all are welcome. Much of the event will take place outdoors in our ‘Play Shelter’ so please dress for the weather! Numbers inside the exhibition will be monitored so a short wait may be required. Drinks are generously provided by our neighbour Bellfield Brewery.
The Beast by Ruth Ewan was commissioned and produced by Collective, with funding and support from the University of Edinburgh Art Collection.
Join us on Friday 17 June from 6—8pm to celebrate the opening of backwash, an exhibition of new work by Glasgow-based artist Camara Taylor.
backwash can refer to the cleaning of filters, the receding of waves, backward currents or the reverberations of an event. It is also a name for the saliva-infused liquid at the bottom of drinking vessels.
In this exhibition of new video and mixed-media works by Camara Taylor, forming part of Collective’s Satellites Programme, these fluid actions are mixed with ongoing explorations of silt, slop and snaps.
This is a free event and all are welcome. Much of the event will take place outdoors in our ‘Play Shelter’ so please dress for the weather! Numbers inside the exhibition will be monitored so a short wait may be required.
Collective’s Satellites Programme is supported by Baillie Gifford. backwash is supported by The Elephant Trust.
A Matter of Precedents by Annette Krauss opens on 1 June, as a research resource in the Library.
This collaborative long-term research project reflects on Collective’s move to the City Observatory and explores the site’s designation as a ‘common good asset’.
The project launches with two walking conversations on 1 & 2 June led by Annette Krauss and other artists and cultural thinkers, and will visit common good sites in Edinburgh.
18 June – 4 September
backwash, an exhibition of new work by Camara Taylor, opens in the Hillside on 18 June. The exhibition consists of new video and mixed-media work relating to the artist’s ongoing conversation with Scottish waterways and a collection of public papers spanning several centuries. Camara Taylor is a participant in Satellites, Collective’s development programme for emergent pracitioners based in Scotland.
25 June – 18 September
On 25 June The Beast by Ruth Ewan will open in the City Dome.
A new animation, presented alongside archival material, focuses on the Scottish/American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and his namesake Diplodocus carnegii. The exhibition explores intersecting ideas around power, exploitation, culture and the history of capitalism. The animation has been co-written with Marxist magician and professor of theatre studies Dr Ian Saville.
Edinburgh4Europe will mark Europe Day by launching two new EuroWalks in Edinburgh, highlighting connections with our European neighbours.
What will you do on Europe Day this year? The European Movement in Scotland (EMiS) will mark the day by celebrating Scotland’s historic, and contemporary, links with our European neighbours. They have created a series of EuroWalks across Scotland to take in local landmarks with connections to European figures, places or historical events.
Edinburgh4Europe, the local EMiS group, is delighted to welcome Ben Macpherson (MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith) for the official opening of their Leith EuroWalk on Saturday, 7th May, at 11am outside the Custom House in Leith (65-67 Commercial Street).
The EuroWalk highlights a variety of Leith’s links to Europe, including Mary of Guise, Norwegian whalers and trades with the Baltic states.
On Monday, 9th May, a group of EMiS volunteers will lead a guided tour on a EuroWalk around Calton Hill.
The walk will start at 5.30pm from the Paolozzi Statues on Picardy Place:
The walking routes, with photos and information, can be found at this link: link: https://eurowalks.scot/, so these can be followed in person or investigated from your own home.
Looking to the future, the plan is to continue the growth of EuroWalks in collaboration with organisations such as Visit Scotland and to create a network of walks across Scotland, in cities, towns and the countryside, which collectively help us to celebrate our rich European heritage.
EMiS hopes these will achieve the twin aim of educating local residents (including the tens of thousands of European citizens who live in Scotland) and teaching visitors more about the connections between their own countries and Scotland.
EMiS wants this to be a truly collaborative, grassroots venture, drawing on ideas from people and communities across Scotland. Most of all, they hope to demonstrate the rich variety and scope of Scotland’s ties to the European continent. Because Europe is our past, Europe is our present and Europe is our future.
If you want to join in this enjoyable volunteer-led initiative, or have ideas or knowledge about a local European connection to include, please contact the EuroWalks team at walks4europe@gmail.com.
Edinburgh4Europe:
Edinburgh for Europe is a group that came together during the campaign in 2018 for a People’s Vote on the deal secured by the UK government to leave the EU. We are made up of people who are Scottish or EU citizens or both.
We are affiliated to the European Movement in Scotland, a movement which started after World War II and before the economic union began. We work to maintain good relations with citizens of European countries and to mitigate the effects of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.
Collective is delighted to host artist Cauleen Smith in Edinburgh to produce a new public performance, in association with her 2014 film H-E-L-L-O currently screening in our City Dome.
At the centre of H-E-L-L-O is John Williams’ famous five-note musical motif from Stephen Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Working with Collective’s unique landscape, architecture and backdrop, the artist’s specially devised performance will take place across Calton Hill and will feature five locally based musicians playing Williams’ score as a ‘call and response’ on their bass clef instruments.
The installation of Cauleen Smith’s film in our City Dome, which is screening until 15 May, brings the themes of H-E-L-L-O into conversation with her long-term interest in astronomy and coastal cities. The piece bears witness to the devastating impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and hones in on the damage that has been done to the long established African American community through the city’s eagerness to embrace regeneration.
Collective is situated in an exposed location on top of Calton Hill and this will be an outdoor performance, so please check the forecast and dress accordingly.
This is a free, drop-in event, no pre-booking needed.
Collective is now open from Tuesday – Sunday, 10am—5pm
Visit Collective this Easter break to experience a range of creative workshops suitable for children of all ages – from workshops celebrating rainwater in partnership with Edinburgh Science Festival, to drop-in creative sessions exploring our PLAY programme, and a final weekend of activities inspired by our current exhibition H-E-L-L-O by artist Cauleen Smith.
Edinburgh Science Festival: Rain Harvest
9–10 April 11am—12.30pm & 2—3.30pm £5 | Book in advance
Join in with the 2022 Edinburgh Science Festival and explore the beauty and vitality of rainwater in this hands-on, sensory workshop that blends art, science and play.
11–22 April Tuesday – Sunday, 10am—4pm Free | No booking needed
Throughout the Easter holidays, families are warmly invited to drop in to Collective and join us at our Play Shelter and Hillside spaces to take part in a range of art activities related to our year-round Collective Play programme.
Collective PLAY Weekend: Vibrations
23–24 April, 11am—4pm Free | No booking needed
Join us for a final Easter holiday weekend of free outdoor play and creative activities for children and families, inspired by our current exhibition H-E-L-L-O by Cauleen Smith.
A limited number of quiet slots are available on 23 April for families and children with autism or sensory learning disabilities.
