Five must-see shows and events at Edinburgh Art Festival

A forest of 100 microphones and 100 impaled papers fills the Edinburgh College of Art’s Engine House. The microphones, suspended above fragments of poetry on the spears below, recite the words of poets who have been censored and silenced over the last century. For, in your tongue I cannot hide (2018) (until 26 August) by the Indian artist Shilpa Gupta refers to the continued vulnerability of freedom of expression today. Lasting over an hour, each microphone plays its verse and alternates between languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Azeri and Hindi. The work, which is co-commissioned with YARAT Contemporary Art Space in Baku, is one of five commissions in the EAF programme this year, focussing on performance-based works that “reflect on urgent current political issues”.

27 July 2018