00:00I'm in Edinburgh City Centre where the Edinburgh Art Festival is kicking off today and for the
00:05first time ever the festival has its own pavilion on Leigh Street which I'm standing in front of
00:11which will be a hive of activity hosting artist discussions and many of the festival's commissions
00:17and projects. The festival is running for three weeks until the 24th of August and you can still
00:23get your hands on tickets. I caught up with the festival director Kim McAleese and I'm one of the
00:30artists involved to find out a little bit more about what's in store in the coming weeks. Kim thanks
00:36so much for speaking to us. You've brought your biggest programme to date. Tell us a little bit
00:41about what people can expect from this year's programme. Yeah of course so Edinburgh Art Festival
00:47I mean it's a festival of visual art but it's so much more than that. We're presenting 82
00:53different events and projects unfolding over 45 different spaces in Edinburgh from the 7th until
00:58the 24th of August and that ranges right from exhibitions in historic buildings to performances
01:05in warehouses on the docks in Leith and we've actually we're doing a project in the People's
01:11Story Museum this year that I'm really happy about.
01:13And this year you've obviously got this pavilion on Leith Street. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about
01:25this space and kind of what's going to be happening here. Yeah of course this is a it's actually a really
01:31special building and it's managed by an organisation called Outer Spaces and they're I suppose everything
01:38that they do is for artists and the visual art community. So within this building we're standing
01:44in there are 100 artists that are using the space to make work and to continue their practice and we
01:51are occupying the entire ground floor of this building and we're going to be presenting a film
01:57installation and we have this gorgeous space that we're in is our kind of main welcome space and that
02:05includes a project by an artist called Transmask Studies which looks at the history of trans masculine
02:11gender identity within Scotland. I'm Rachel I'm a reporter at the Scotsman and I'm here at the launch of the
02:18Edinburgh Art Festival today and I'm joined by one of the artists in residence at the EAF pavilion on
02:28Leith Street. Hamish tell me a little bit kind of about yourself and how you've been involved in the
02:34festival. So my name is Hamish Halley and I'm an artist based in Glasgow and I'm involved with the
02:41festival as part of their host program here and also as their early career artist in residence.
02:47Yeah and you said that it was your kind of first time being involved how does it feel how are you
02:53feeling about the next few weeks? It's very exciting it's exciting to share a work that I've been working
02:59on for a while and that I know very well but nice to be able to open it up to other people.
03:04So tell us a little bit more about that work and the kind of inspiration.
03:07The main element is a video called Please Keep and it's footage of Perth Museum moving their
03:14natural history collection into their new building or removing it from their old building
03:20and then also my family clearing my grandparents home as they moved into it.
03:33The second time the title is a video called Please Keep and it's a lot of time.
03:38So I can show you the details I can show you the details.
03:38It's more than that you know many of these.
03:40So I have to show you the details I can show you the details I have video the details.
03:42All you have to tell me about the content and the facts you ask but I will show you the details.
03:46You
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