Established in 2003, The Embassy (www.embassygallery.co.uk) incorporated the key protagonists behind two Edinburgh-based artist-initiatives of the early 00s: Win Together Lose Together Play Together Stay Together – a carnivalesque cooperative that occupied temporary spaces – and Magnifitat (www.magnifitat.net) – an apartment-based curatorial organisation with a penchant for performance. The revolving committee plug a fissure in Edinburgh’s art infrastructure, creating additional prospects for artists in a city dominated by National Galleries and the Edinburgh International Festival. The Embassy is not the first coop to spearhead such a scheme, it compliments rather than competes with older independents such as The Fringe (1947- ), 57 Gallery/New 57 (1957-84), Collective (1984- ) and Out of the Blue (1994- ).
The Embassy cut their teeth and continue to raise core funding by organising talks, trips and regular large-scale video and performance events in Edinburgh College of Art as part of Drawing & Painting professional practice programme. The curated events have exposed new work from an array of celebrated artists – including Jordan Baseman, David Sherry, Duncan Marquiss, Katy Dove, Sue Tompkins, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Torsten Lauschmann, Mark Leckey and Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard – alongside contributions from relative newcomers and students. It has provided an invaluable conduit for time-based art in Scotland, practices that have been marginalised since the embryonic commercial sector has moved on to solids. The Embassy’s purposely provisional character is abetted by its close relations with native art students, allowing it to act as a conduit between art and educational institutions, facilitating rites of passage that have rapidly made it a keystone for Edinburgh’s communities of artists.
Opening a dedicated gallery space in June 2004, The Embassy has programmed a number of important group and solo shows drawing on strong links with Central Scotland, the North of England, Berlin, Amsterdam and London. Artists featured include Dave Alker & Peter Liddel, Paul Carter, Chris Burden, Lali Chetwynd, Lucy McKenzie, Boyle Family, Lucy Stein & Jo Robertson, Not Yet, Keith Farquhar, The London Institute of ‘Pataphysics, Keith MacIsaac, Uncle John and Whitelock, Alasdair Gray and recent EAST winner Ruth Ewan. The Directors also established an annual international residency, a series of members’ exchange exhibitions, a new contemporaries programme for Scottish graduates, an open submission member’s show and launched the Annuale (www.annuale.org), a genuine fringe featuring Edinburgh’s numerous independent contemporary art organisations held during the Festival jamboree.
The organisation also represents members’ work commercially in Edinburgh and, as the Foreign Embassy, at the Zoo and Glasgow art fairs but, being not-for-profit, it only takes enough of a cut to cover basic expenses. Going out with a bang, the founding ambassadors curated and participated in a major group show Young Athenians (www.youngathenians.co.uk) premiered at the Royal Scottish Academy last October and set to tour to Destroy Athens, the first Athens Biennial opening this September. The baton having passed to a new committee, The Embassy is now seeking to expand its international links while cooperating with new local arrivals such as Standby.
