Bright idea to turn Arthur's Seat into living work of art

Published on Tuesday 15 September 2009 22:03

IT is a project which promises to create one of the biggest-ever spectacles in the history of the Edinburgh International Festival – at one of the nation's best-known landmarks.

Arthur's Seat, the extinct volcano which towers over Scotland's capital, would become home to a huge light show to coincide with the staging of the London Olympics in 2012.

Images unveiled yesterday show how the 350 million-year-old landmark would be transformed by a human-powered lighting system which aims to "capture the phenomenal energy of sporting effort".

One of Scotland's leading artists, Angus Farquhar, has joined forces with EIF organisers for the project, which is in the running to win one of a number of huge grants allowing artists to bring Olympic-themed projects to life in 2012.

Festival director Jonathan Mills told The Scotsman he is hopeful the project would go ahead even if it was not successful in the nationwide contest. The 12 winning commissions are announced next month.

It is hoped the venture – dubbed Speed of Light – will help generate international attention for the EIF, which opens just as the London Olympics will come to a climax. The project would be the most ambitious yet for Farquhar's NVA arts company, which has worked on sound and light installations at The Old Man of Storr on Skye, Finnich Glen, in Drymen, and Glen Lyon, in Perthshire.

Several hundred professional and amateur athletes of all ages would be enlisted to traverse a series of routes – on foot, on bikes and in wheelchairs – around Arthur's Seat every night of the festival in 2012.

With special lighting effects installed around the landmark itself, each participant would also be fitted with colour-coded lighting equipment to create flowing patterns around the spectacular landscape.

Different colours would be provided depending on the speed the volunteer participants would be travelling at, such as red bursts of light for sprinters, or green trails being made by marathon runners.

Mr Farquhar, also the founder of the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh, said:

"It would be a huge undertaking which is only in its very early stages, but we're already speaking to Historic Scotland and looking at what would be needed to make it happen. But I know it would be incredibly complex and very expensive, so this competition is very important."

Mr Mills said: "The project is by no means dead if it isn't successful in this competition, but it's obviously something we'd have to find alternative funding for and we'd want to do it in 2012."

Councillor Steve Cardownie, the city's festivals and events champion, said: "The Cultural Olympiad offers a fantastic opportunity for Edinburgh, when our world-class festivals programme will play a pivotal role in showcasing to an global audience the best that the city can offer."

Olympic grant hopefuls

NVA's Speed of Light project is one of five in Scotland vying to secure a 500,000 grant.

Edinburgh-born sculptor Kenny Hunter has proposed to create five large-scale works of art of contemporary Olympians inspired by the sculptors of ancient Greece.

Glasgow Art School graduate Kate Robertson envisages bringing 24 disused chimney stacks back to life through a smoke generator.

Joanne Tatham and Tom O'Sullivan would create four large-scale sculptures to tour around the country. Craig Coulthard, who was born in Germany, proposes to create a football pitch hidden within a forest which would only play host to one match before being abandoned to nature.