THE words of jailed poets are given voice in an artwork created for this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival.
The sound installation by India’s Shilpa Gupta was unveiled yesterday at the city’s Engine House venue, part of Edinburgh College of Art.
It includes 100 microphones suspended above the same number of metal rods, each of which pierces a page inscribed with a fragment of poetry.
Visitors taking in the multi-channel artwork can hear excerpts of the words of
featured writers in languages
that include Russian, Turkish, English, Chinese and Urdu.
All of those selected for inclusion have been detained during a period spanning hundreds of years.
They include Maung Saunghka, whose Facebook post on the former president of Myanmar made him one of the first political activists detained in Myanmar after Aung San Suu Kyi came to power in April 2016.
He spent months in prison, but some of those chosen for inclusion were executed for their verses.
Festival organisers describe Gupta’s work – titled For, in your tongue I cannot hide – as a “powerful reflection on freedom of expression”.
Commissioned with Yarat Contemporary Art Space in Azerbaijani capital Baku, the piece is on show until August 26.
Now in its 15th year, this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival also includes a focus on the work of celebrated Scottish painter John Bellany at the Open Eye Gallery, as well as a retrospective celebrating the textiles and fashion of London retailer and design studio Liberty.
The programme spans more than 25 venues and also includes photography, film and sculpture.
Announcing the programme earlier this month, event director Sorcha Carey said: “Our festival’s origins lie in the strength of Edinburgh’s year-round visual arts scene.
“As we enter our 15th edition, this year’s partner exhibitions continue to demonstrate the ambitious and inspiring programming that has shaped our festival from its inception.”
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