Exclusive:Edinburgh Art Festival: The former Team GB gymnast leading festival line-up

The festival is marking its 21st year

Performance art by a former Team GB gymnast and a film drawing connections between members of the queer community across history in four different languages of Scotland are included in specially-commissioned works for the 21st anniversary of the Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF).

Ex-gymnast Lewis Walker will headline EAF, which runs from August 7 to 24, as the festival hosts its own pavilion for the first time. A shared hub on Edinburgh’s Leith Street, the space will host many of the new commissions and projects, resident artists and discussion, as well as exhibited artworks.

The festival spans from Leith to West Lothian, and from Haymarket to the Old and New Town, with works both indoors and outdoors.

Bornsick, by Walker, a former Team GB gymnast and a recent graduate of London Contemporary Dance School, reflects the idea that people inherit illness — born into a system that shapes them before they can define themselves. Co-commissioned with Serpentine, the autobiographical narrative by Walker will be performed on August 23.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hetherington and CJ Mahony's film, Who Will Be Remembered Here, is a fieldwork performance project with Historic Environment Scotland and the organisation’s team of historians and researchers.

Four writers have been commissioned to each create a piece of text for performance, each responding to one of four sites which spans the whole of human history in Scotland. Each responds in a different language: Robert Softley Gale in English, Harry Josephine Giles in Scots, Robbie MacLeòid in Gaelic, and Bea Webster in BSL.

Edinburgh Art Festival has unveiled its programme. | EAF

Kim McAleese, director of EAF, said: “We’re so excited to be announcing our EAF25 programme. At the heart of this year’s programming is the call to reflect on how ancestral knowledge can guide us in addressing contemporary challenges.

“We are inviting audiences to reflect on our collective relationship with the natural world, drawing inspiration from the wisdom of those who came before us — those who foster cycles of care, sustenance and resilience. There are also recurring motifs of classical myths, folklore, modern feminist empowerment, queerness through the lens of Scottish history as well as thoughts on what it is to be human - exploring concepts of the body as a temporary vessel that is often shaped by societal expectations.”

JUPITER RISING x EAF will return for a one-night-only festival within a festival at Jupiter Artland on the outskirts of the city, with a line-up including TAAHLIAH and Ponyboy.

Lewis Walker will perform Bornsick. | EAF

A major retrospective by land artist Andy Goldsworthy and the queer ceramic and textile animals of Jonathan Baldock will be held at the Royal Scottish Academy and will continue beyond the festival into November. A performance art piece by pioneering feminist artist Linder has already been announced. First presented at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, the retrospective will then open EAF.

Emma Nicolson, head of visual arts at Creative Scotland, said: "EAF returns in its 21st year with a bold and expansive programme for 2025, continuing to lead the way in championing contemporary art across Scotland and offering vital platforms for both emerging and established voices.”