July 7th 2023 17.00

Summerhall

Edinburgh

Join us for celebration and conversation with Richard Demarco.
Richard will be in conversation with the editors Laura Leuzzi, Elaine Shemilt, and Stephen Partridge, with Robert McDowell in the Anatomy Lecture Theatre.

Since the 1960s Richard Demarco has had a pivotal role in the production and promotion of the
visual and performing arts in Scotland. The Italo-Scottish artist, cultural entrepreneur and educator
has organised and fostered cultural exchanges and collaborations throughout Europe and has been
a champion of European culture and the avant-garde in Scotland. Although some research and
publications have been devoted to Demarco’s endeavours, little is known of the numerous cultural
exchanges and collaborations between Italy and Scotland that he initiated and developed in the past
fifty years.
This gap in the historical canon of knowledge is extraordinary because in the Demarco’s archives – a
portion of which is at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA, (representing activities from
1963 to 1995) and a portion at the Demarco European Art Foundation, Edinburgh – are many traces of
exchanges between Italy and Scotland promoted by Demarco as part of his larger European network
and contribution to the Edinburgh Festival.
These documents constitute his Gesamtkunstwerk and include photographs, ephemera, notes,
catalogues and artworks that feature events involving relevant Italian or Italian-based artists, producers,
performers, directors, critics including: Palma Bucarelli, the Count Panza di Biumo, Giulio Paolini, Jannis
Kounellis, Bruno Ceccobelli, Toti Scialoja, Carlo Quartucci and Carla Tatò, Mimmo Rotella, Mario Merz,
Fabrizio Plessi, Achille Bonito Oliva, Maria Gloria Conti Bicocchi, Giuseppe Chiari, Guido Sartorelli.
This publication is the main outcome of the eponymous research project, Richard Demarco The Italian
Connection funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and uncovers and retraces many stories
and reassesses how Demarco promoted Italian visual and performing arts in Scotland and Scottish art
in the Italian cultural context.
Copies of the book will be for sale at the special price of £20 (cash only)