LINE Magazine @ Wee Red Bar

In celebration of two new editions being launched this August, LINE magazine will be hosting a vibrant evening of culture and decadence in the form of a Venetian Ball.

The event marks the installation of LINE’s Virtual Biennale project within Karen Forbes’ Solar Pavilion – a centre point of this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival. It will also celebrate two releases – the ‘Illuminated Artist’ issue and the forthcoming EAF edition.

From 10pm this Thursday, the Wee Red Bar will be transformed into a scene of Venetian hedonism, featuring installations by ECA sculpture graduate Laurie McPhearson, live performance and film. Expect Tintoretto, a lavish papier-mâché feast, and illuminated pools with floating gondolas, all of which will be framed by a Sofia Coppola-style soundtrack and an array of masked guests.

As well as paying homage to the city of Venice and its cultural aesthetic, the ball will also acknowledge LINE’s Virtual Biennale project. Compiled first-hand at this summer’s Biennale and culminating with ‘The Illuminated Artist’ issue, it features a series of interviews, reviews and critical essays alongside images from the fair. By producing a document that exists both online and in a printed format, the project hopes to document the city and its Biennale as a detached spectacle that is composed purely of text and image. Copies of ‘The Illuminated Artist’ will be available at the ball and guests will be able to access the Virtual Biennale site.

In what looks to be one of the highlights of this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival, LINE hope to bring a taste of the cultural and hedonistic behaviour for which Venice is best known.

Masks will be an essential accessory on the night, templates for which can be found on the back of LINE’s special edition postcards that can be picked up from galleries around Edinburgh.