A few (full) days in Edinburgh

The joint certainly is jumpin' during Edinburgh Festival! We did a lot of walking around, a lot of sitting around (watching things and eating), a lot of looking at art, a lot of museum-visiting. My head is swimming and I can't decide what to write about first, so for future reference, here's a list of what we saw. 

- Witches and Wicked Bodies exhibition at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

- Richard Wright, Stairwell Project at ditto

Richard Wright has used a Renaissance flower motif to enhance the space over the staircase

- Paolozzi's studio recreated at ditto

- Gabrielle Kieller Library at ditto

- Charles Jenks' earthwork outside ditto

- Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen (Christine Borland and Brody Condon) at New Calton Burial Ground

- Old Calton Burial Ground  (mausoleum of David Hume figures in Jenny Erdal's The missing shade of blue)

Mara Menzies and Isla Menzies as Susi and Chuma, faithful companions of explorer David Livingstone

- "I knew a man called Livingstone" by Toto Tales Productions at National Library of Scotland - and the Livingstone exhibition there

- display commemorating the 200th anniversary of publication of Pride and Prejudice at ditto; also the John Murray archive

- one of the mysterious books is on display at the library -

"Mystery book sculpture" left anonymously at National Library of Scotland

- Peter Liversidge at Ingleby Gallery - and his "Hello" flags dotted around town

- "The Principle of Uncertainty" - a quantum mechanics lecture (!) performed by Andrea Brunello

-Peter Doig at Scottish National Gallery - and many discoveries there, poetic films by Margaret Tait, and Pietro Testa's drawings

- talk by naturalist Mark Cocker and photographer David Tipling, who have published "Birds and People", which is definitely on my wish list -

430,000 words, photos from 39 countries, contributions from 81 nationalities - and it only took 6 years...

- another Literary Festival talk, by George Goodwin, about the battle of Flodden in 1513 and the personalities who shaped Europe at that time

-"Beethoven for Breakfast" concert, followed by coffee and pastry, with a wonderful of the castle 

Some of the 100 multiples, aggrandised by plinths

-many art exhibitions at Summerhall, including Lawrence Weiner's "100 Multiples", the Richard Demarco archive, Kaori Matsumura,  and Fiona Banner's "The Vanity Press", and a multiscreen installation by Michael Nyman

- a five-screen film called Bonanza

- "Amazing Amber" at the National Museum of Scotland

- Ilana Halperin, The Library, at ditto - a small but intensely thoughtful show, beautifully displayed

- many, many more things at that museum, including the musical light show that constitutes the striking of the Millennium Clock (every hour on the hour)

Rum goings on in the old dissection room

- and what we mainly went for - "This Side of Paradise" by Dudendance, with strangely shaped bodies, darkness and mystery, mist and shadows, eerie lighting and sound.... film clip and proper pix are here