Art Festival Announces 2023 Programme

Art - Vogue House © Frederic Aranda

The nineteenth edition of the Edinburgh Art Festival, the UK's largest festival of visual arts, will be returning to the capital city from August 11-27. Director Kim McAleese, in her first year with the festival, has curated a programme featuring a diverse range of exhibitions, events, and performances for visitors to explore.

The festival's 2023 programme showcases artists, thinkers, writers, and performers who are deeply connected to feminist and queer practice, exploring various themes such as queer histories, peace lines and borders through sound, moving image and music. Partner galleries across Edinburgh will present a range of exhibitions the majority of which will be open to the public for free for the festival.

Amongst the highlights announced are:

artist Sean Burns film Dorothy Towers which celebrates the social history of two residential blocks in Birmingham and their importance to the LGBTQ+ community
the Scottish premiere of History of the Present, a hybrid opera-film that will be performed live, created by Northern Irish writer Maria Fusco in collaboration with Scottish artist film-maker Margaret Salmon and composer Annea Lockwood, which forefronts the voices of working-class women in Northern Ireland.
a performance by Scotland and Venice selected artist Alberta Whittle at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art to coincide with the exhibition create dangerously.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan's film 45th Parallel presented at Talbot Rice Gallery, which considers structural divides at a unique municipal site which crosses Canadian and United States borders
Tarek Lakhrissi's installation The Nerve at Collective will explore the queer history of Calton Hill
sculptorLeonor Antunes and photographer Markéta Luskačová will be exhibiting at the Fruitmarket and Stills, respectively
environmental themes will be addressed by Keg D'Souza's Rising Tide at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Jupiter Artland will host Lindsey Mendick's work on taboo topics and uncomfortable truths, as well as a festival day for all the family.
and the festival will host its ninth edition of Platform, a mentorship and exhibition program for early career artists working in Scotland, with this year’s selected artists being Aqsa Arif, Crystal Bennes, Rudy Kanhye, and Richard Maguire. Details of their commissions will be announced in Spring.

This only captures a fraction of the diverse range of visual arts events taking place across the city from 11 – 27 August. Browse the full programme for the Edinburgh Art Festival online HERE

Back to Inspiration