Condemned tenements are artworks

Published on Tuesday 31 August 2010 14:31

An explosion of colour is probably the last thing you'd expect to see in the middle of a demolition site.

&#149 North Edinburgh Arts' Annabel Bartle with resident Ricky Malcolm

A project driven by North Edinburgh Arts, however, has brightened up some soon-to-be demolished housing blocks.

The local arts group commissioned German artist Clemens Behr to paint the gable ends of two tenements, which are to be brought down as part of the 21st Century Council Homes for Edinburgh Programme, which will see the redevelopment of Pennywell and Muirhouse, North Sighthill and Gracemount and aims to deliver more than 12,000 new affordable homes over the next ten years.

Muirhouse and Pennywell alone will see 700 new homes, a 50 per cent split between affordable homes and market price housing.

In the meantime, residents have had to put up with rubble and bulldozers, so North Edinburgh Arts secured funding from Creative Scotland for a range of arts projects to brighten up the area in the interim.

NEA's Annabel Bartle said: "The public art is the final stage of a year-long art project entitled Your New Home.

"Over the last year we've commissioned artists to engage local people in a range of workshops designed to encourage them to think more deeply about the shape, form and architecture of the community that they live in.

"It took a while to introduce people to the idea that public art could actually benefit the community, and we did come up against some scepticism."

Mr Behr has spent the last week painting the gable ends of the Muirhouse buildings, and the final result is an explosion of abstract shapes.

The artist was chosen as he specialises in temporary artworks, and was seen as the perfect candidate to create art on the side of a building which is shortly to be torn down leaving no trace of the painting behind.

Roy Douglas, chair of Muirhouse and Salvesen Community Council, was impressed. He said: "I walked by the site over a period of about two or three days and watched the artist create it, and I found it really inspiring.

"It was nice to see someone make use of an empty building, and see it not as derelict but a canvas.

"I went to the unveiling and watched some of the artists from NEA engage with the local kids, aged between about nine and 12, and encourage them to create their own mini arts projects on the back of it.

"The community council is fully supportive of the NEA and its projects.

"Muirhouse has seen a lot of family displacement in recent months, so anything that attempts to inject some life into the area is most welcome."