Jan — Mar 2016 Guide Exhibitions/Events/Walks/Off-Site/Open-Air Café
Opacities Screening Programme Admission Free 04.02.16 – 11.02.16
Wojciech Bakowski, Sound of my Soul, Film Still, 2014
About Collective
MILK Open-Air Café
Collective was established in 1984 to support the production of new art in Edinburgh. In 2013 we moved to Calton Hill to redevelop the City Observatory complex. Our vision is to become a new kind of City Observatory for Edinburgh, a space in which practitioners, producers and publics can meet, think, debate, reflect upon the past and take action.
Collective has an open-air café run by MILK The seasonally changing menu is freshly prepared using only natural ingredients. Now serving hot soup and toasted sandwiches. Open during gallery opening hours every week.
Open:
Lunchtime Meal Deal Each Wednesday at 1pm we have a new £5 lunch deal – coffee + a sandwich from MILK café and a gallery tour by Collective staff.
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To make a donation by text: You can give £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10. Example: text COLL38 £ followed by the amount you would like to donate to 70070.
Tuesday to Sunday October – March 10am—4pm April – September 10am—5pm
44 (0) 131 556 1264 mail@collectivegallery.net www.collectivegallery.net +
Design: Graphical House
James N Hutchinson, Working drawing, 2015.
Events
Satellites Programme is Collective's development programme for emergent artists based in Scotland.
Collective Gallery City Observatory | City Dome 38 Calton Hill, Edinburgh EH7 5AA
Collective is redeveloping the whole City Observatory complex as the gallery’s new home, conserving and reinstating the original Playfair designs and creating a newbuild gallery space and restaurant. The entire site will be freely open and accessible to the public for the first time in its history.
Observers’ Walks is a series of downloadable audio guides specially created by artists to be listened to on Calton Hill.
All events are free and will take place at Collective. To book and for further details please visit www.collectivegallery.net
Tris Vonna-Michell The Artist and The Gravedigger: After D.O. Hill 17 mins Tris Vonna-Michell has made a work centred on the pioneering calotype photography of David Octavius Hill, who worked with Robert Adamson at Rock House, which is on the south west side of Calton Hill.
Opacities 4, 6 and 11 February | 7—9pm Screening and discussion events programmed with artist Kathryn Elkin and Peter Taylor, Director of Berwick Film Festival.
Full details of the screening event will be available on www.collectivegallery.net
Organisations involved include: Collective, Artlink Edinburgh, Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica and Norte Comum. Ideas generated from this exchange will be developed over the next year.
Katie Schwab, Living Together, HD video, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
Supported by the British Council.
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Historically the City Observatory complex was a place to house telescopes and observe the stars, but city observatories are also places to view, to reflect upon a city, to bring people together, laboratories to research and places to follow academic pursuits.
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Katie Schwab Together in a Room 20 February – 24 April Preview 19 February | 6—8pm Katie’s practice incorporates textiles, video, ceramics and functional furniture which are brought together in communal installations. For this exhibition, Katie has produced a collection of works drawing on her research into histories of domestic design, showroom display and craft education. Using bright colours, improvised patterns and abstract shapes, the works explore ideas of function and decoration in their composition and arrangement. As part of the exhibition Katie will present the screening event A View from the Interior, which will include film and video works exploring the politics of living spaces.
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An Exchange of Method An Exchange of Method is a collaborative research project between arts organisations and artists in Edinburgh and Rio de Janeiro. Through workshops and research visits, the exchange has created opportunities to share and progress knowledge within contemporary art practices that engage with the concept or delivery of 'care' and advocacy.
Discussion Event A short introduction to Asterisms, Constellations, and Star Clusters Prof John Brown and James N Hutchinson 29 March | 6—8pm Collective, City Dome, Calton Hill, Edinburgh, EH7 5AA
Observers’ Walks
Collective
This programme of commissions will include discussions, screenings and walks, providing opportunities for artists and audiences to engage with our locality and consider new ways for people to work together.
Petra Bauer Petra’s practice explores film as a space where political negotiations can take place. Several of her works are focused on how women have chosen to self-organise in order to change political and social structures, as well as everyday life and individual practices. Petra has been working in collaboration with women’s organisations and individuals in Edinburgh to informally map political activity in the city. Following on from two research trips in 2015, Petra will return to Collective in March to begin an extended collaboration with Scot-Pep, a charity dedicated to the promotion of sex workers' rights. Together they will explore filmmaking as a political practice and the work, daily challenges and particular struggles of their organisation.
Towards a City Observatory
Royal Terrace
During the development of the City Observatory complex we have commissioned a series of three research based, off-site projects.
James N Hutchinson Calton Hill Asterisms James has started his research project by plotting his own asterism in and around Calton Hill. Points of the asterism include the former location of Braidwoods Academy for the Deaf and Dumb, Canongate Kirk and Hillside Crescent. The stories behind these asterism points are not connected in a linear way, but all lead back to the City Observatory. The points speak of scientific study, amateurism and international trade of goods and knowledge.
How to find us
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Constellations Programme is a series of off-site artist commissions that aim to bring people together to develop ideas and partnerships.
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Collective is based at the City Observatory complex on Calton Hill. Situated in the heart of Edinburgh, it is a few minutes' walk from Waverley railway station. Calton Hill is accessible on foot from Waterloo Place and Royal Terrace. If you require disabled access please contact the gallery on +44 (0)131 556 1264 The City Dome is available to hire for events until Spring 2016. Please visit our website for more details or contact lori@collectivegallery.net
Collective’s vision is to be a new kind of City Observatory for Edinburgh, encouraging engagement, connecting with the locality through the acts of looking, thinking and producing in relation to the historic culture of the site. Collective are in the final stages of fundraising for the project and are now seeking private donations and corporate sponsorship. To help us make our vision a reality please visit our website or email lori@collectivegallery.net
Bedwyr Williams Outwith 20 mins Performed by Hilary Lyon This audio guide takes the listener through a series of stories created by the artist, which are all set in a local hotel, visible from Calton Hill. Ruth Ewan and Astrid Johnston Memorialmania 54 mins Narrated by Tam Dean Burn and Ruth Milne In Memorialmania, Ruth Ewan and Astrid Johnston concentrate on the monuments and geology of Edinburgh’s Calton Hill. Observers’ Walks is funded by Outset Scotland. The tracks are available to download from Collective’s website or mp3 players can be borrowed from our reception during opening hours.
What do we mean by ‘understand’ when we are talking about artworks? How can we talk about the artwork or describe it in a way that expands rather than reduces? Opacities is a series of three screenings and discussion events that will explore new ways to talk about experimental moving image outside of an academic framework. The programme includes work by filmmakers and artists who all seem to refuse categorisation and deal with personal logic, illogic, missing histories or the esoteric. The screening events will include works by: Lewis Khlar, Ben Rivers and Wojciech Bakowski. A full list of films is available on www.collectivegallery.net KEYWORDS 22 March | 6—8pm KEYWORDS is a series of public discussions examining contemporary art and language. Taking inspiration from Raymond Williams’, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, these events put the routine language of contemporary art under thoughtful analysis.
This is one of three KEYWORDS events that will be held across Edinburgh, and will consider the word 'Critical'. Two invited speakers will present their personal perspective on a widely used term in contemporary art writing, before opening to conversation with the audience. KEYWORDS is programmed by Dr Harry Weeks and Dr Victoria Horne, and supported by The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art.
A Short Introduction to Asterisms, Constellations, and Star Clusters Prof John Brown and James N Hutchinson 29 March | 6—8pm Prof John Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland will talk about the science and history behind asterisms, constellations, and star clusters and James N Hutchinson will present some of the research behind his Calton Hill Asterism project. Gallery Tours Each Wednesday at 1pm a member of the Collective team leads a tour of our current exhibition.