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2008/6/30

Festival grows up in world with high-rise tobacco plants

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@ 01:43 AM (3 months, 8 days ago)

A TOWERING office block sprouting tobacco plants, private gardens transformed by sculptures and random video screens installed around the city centre will be just some of the stranger sights of this year's Edinburgh Art Festival.

The programme was launched today, with the diverse selection of exhibits and events including a chance to listen to a modern version of a record sent into outer space or read quotes from the Bible on giant rotating lightbulbs.

pective of Tracey Emin's work, being held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, is this year's major exhibition, and the controversial artist is expected to draw huge crowds. Among the more striking highlights on show around the city will be East Lothian-based artist Ettie Spencer's Tobacco House, which will see large tobacco crops growing out of the windows of St Margaret's House on London Road, as well as an outdoor crop grown behind the Craigmillar Arts Centre.
The artist hopes that the installation in the former pensions building will raise questions about the issues of slavery, poverty and taxation surrounding the tobacco industry, as well as brightening up the "grim" building.
She has not yet decided what will be done with the crop but will be taking suggestions from the public during the festival.
Another event sure to catch the eye will be Boris Eldagsen's Spam: the musical, a series of video installations based on two years' worth of spam e-mails collected by the artist. As it is a work of "guerrilla" art, organisers were in the dark over exactly where, or what, the installations would be, but said they would include videos around the city centre.
The videos will also be uploaded to internet sites in dozens of countries across the globe, in a bid to create the world's biggest piece of spam art.
Big Things on the Beach is again working with the festival after last year's successful sandbag pyramids, and this year have organised Garden Gallery, which will see artists placing works in the gardens of private houses around Portobello beach.
The homeowners have all given their permission, and the works will all be visible from the street, with tours being arranged to take people around the event.
The festival includes more than 50 exhibitions, and features more than 120 events, including artists' talks, screenings, debates, tours and family projects.
Director Joanne Brown said she was "overawed" by the quantity and quality of the work.
She said: "I feel really proud of the way the city has taken on the Art Festival, and we now have so many galleries commissioning work and organising events, most of which are free to the public and which will really raise the profile of visual arts."
The Edinburgh Art Festival runs from July 31 to August 31.