CCA Highlights: July/August 2017
Summer has come! Enjoy 11pm plays of light, midges on the Isle of Skye and open-topped convertibles screeching towards euphoric sunsets as you blast through bottles of ice-chilled Bru. The CCA is ready for the long evenings with its steady plethora of vitalising events for you, artful consumer, to enjoy.
The House that Heals the Soul is a stunning celebration of the importance of libraries as a place of refuge, of history, and of discovery, and how we can nurture and protect this most essential of public places. There are also workshops on self-publishing, book exchanges and – fantastically enough – it’s also a library, so go borrow a book from 22 Jul to 3 Sep.
Eat everything! Especially insects! Which, it must be noted, are a brilliant source of protein, cheap to acquire and delicious in the right contexts. Children are given the opportunity to explore Scottish and Mexican food culture in a hands-on workshop that lets them venerate their food with altars, paint frescoes with the blood-red bug cochineal, and encourage them to explore healthy eating with insects. Give your children a magical and tasty adventure at Unicorn Enchilada with Scottish artists Sally Hackett and Greer Pester on 20 Jul.
We have not parted from our brothers and sisters on the continent yet, and now it is ever more vital to remember the things that bind us and how we can protect our shared futures. EuropeNow Film Festival presents a continent in a state of shock and, as the first battle-lines are drawn and recriminations made, how we can sustain the European project and transform the EU for the better in the wake of the economic and emotional perils that face it. Films from 12 artists include Brexitannia, a documentary about Brexit, and a series of short films that show the pain of austerity for everyday Greeks and the dark side of utopia, 12-14 Jul.
These are melodies for a summer morning, as the meadow wakes and the birds take the air to reveal a scampering of deer. A voyage through fractal shapes of sound, a distilled flute christened with synth. The small fire of her piano lighting a path that is slowly being erased, the angels of distant strings urging you to walk it. This is more good music by Kara-Lis Coverdale, whose 2014 album Aftertouches was named best of the year by The Wire and NPR. Here, she unveils her new album Grafts. Immerse yourself in bliss at the CCA, 1 Aug.
To hear the joyful burning arias of a tenor or soprano at full throat is a wonderful thing. Raucous Rossini’s accessible one-act comedy operas take the rapid-rhythm operas of Gioachino Rossini and unleash them into a gleeful riot while maintaining the full glory of a town hall Italian opera. This young opera company is bursting with talent and, fresh from a recent tour of Italy, they are here at the CCA with Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro, or Opportunity Makes the Thief. Revel in the high notes and the bathetic lows, 2 and 3 Aug.
With subjects of identity ever more politically charged in modern society, and navigating the boundary between mind and body becomes more complex, the CCA hosts new Intermedia exhibition as if we were strangers; that strangeness was ours, an intensely abstract exploration of communities of colour and the way they relate to society. Occupy the liminal space between spectator and artist as Sulaiman Majali and Katherine Ka Yi Liu weave together performance, audio, video and sculpture to produce works that "reserve the right to ambiguity." 5 to 23 Aug.