The Full StoryEnvironmental Art Festival Scotland - 30 Aug - 2 Sept
headline acts: Cinema Sark, The Rise and Fall of the Grey Mare’s Tail, Gimme Shelter, Glimpse
The Festival runs from 30 August to 2 September 2013. The partners organising the Festival in dumfries and Galloway are Wide Open, Spring Fling and The Stove.
Cinema Sark
A study of place, ecosystems and the meaning of ‘the border’, presented at the English-Scottish frontier on a giant projection canvas beneath the nine-lane M74 River Sark Bridge. One of the UK’s shortest but geopolitically most important rivers, the Sark has marked the westernmost border since 1552. Thousands whisk over it daily but few notice it. No signs announce its presence or identity.
From Allfornought Hill to the Solway Firth, Cinema Sark uses video, found sound, archive materials and interview audio to explore connections between the Sark’s ecosystems and the people who live and work in them. Live environmental sensors constantly update the Sark System Engine, warping the visual tracks and making every viewing unique.
Inspired by Ecosystem Services Modelling, Cinema Sark flows from six months of filming, discussions and collaboration between video artist John Wallace, programmer Dine, and Royal Society-Wolfson Professor of Soils & Global Change Pete Smith.
The Rise and Fall of the Grey Mare’s Tail
artist: James Winnett
A jet of white water is forced skyward from a gravity-fed fountain placed downstream of a dramatic highland waterfall. Powered entirely by the immense natural energy of water, the intervention has been developed to explore a number of related themes from debates on sustainability and energy use to questions of landscape identity and representation.
The work refers back to eighteenth century Scotland when a radical shift occured in the popular perception of Highland landscapes, transforming them from hostile wildernesses to be avoided to awe-inspiring destinations to be experienced. Artists were at the centre of this process, developing an essential romantic iconography of which dramatic waterfalls played a key role. The fountain too has long been a focal point for great landscaped gardens as a tool for taming, containing and re-presenting nature. In this way the fountain encourages a reconsideration of the very nature of nature.
Gimme Shelter
artists: Pat van Boeckel and Karin van der Molen
Gimme Shelter is a multimedia and interactive project taking place in the ruins of the 16th century Old Kirk of Anwoth. The building has been a famous ruin for many years and nobody remembers when the roof came down.
The project takes us on a virtual tour exploring the whereabouts of the disappeared roof of the building.
Also the artists offers real possibilities to take part in restoring the ruin in the year 2513. With video projections and environmental sculpture the artists seduce the visitors to see the place with new eyes, and explore a traditional and at the same time provocative idea: how to incorporate the far away future in our present way of life.
Glimpse
artists: Donald Urquhart and Will Levi Marshall
Glimpse is a visually dynamic, temporary installation, a highly formal intervention located within a coniferous forestry plantation.
A horizontal section through the forest will be made to visually “disappear” by the installation of Scotland’s largest watercolour. Its conceptual framework has been developed from examining the land use and forestry in Dumfries and Galloway.
On Monday, 2 September is series of events exploring the environment around the sculpture will take place.
Family friendly woodland workshops will be provided during the afternoon and renowned wild food expert Mark Williams will run a food foraging walk. The day will culminating with a chaired discussion on the themes addressed during the festival with invited panel.
The Festival is produced and managed by Wide Open and Spring Fling, and is one of 
