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10 Dialogues : Richard Demarco, Scotland and the European Avant Garde

McArthur and Watson (continuing three decades of collaboration) contributed equally to defining the thesis of the exhibition and the selection of exhibitors, and to preparing the proposal to the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA). McArthur visited Belfast to secure the participation of Alastair Maclennan. Both worked with RSA staff on detailed planning and grant writing; installation was jointly determined through discussion on-site; McArthur spoke at the exhibition opening; and both independently gave public talks.

The exhibition, of 90 works, occupied the eight main RSA exhibition galleries, and was the first independently curated assessment of a significant aspect of Demarco’s work. It sought to show that an overriding purpose guided his efforts from the late 1960s onwards, to change the terms of public discourse about art and culture in post-war and post-cold war Europe. One dimension of this, the subject of the exhibition, was to bring major European artists to Scotland, and to take Scottish artists to Europe (especially Central and Eastern Europe) in a spirit of dialogue and exchange. Six continental European artists (Abakanowicz, Abramovic, Beuys, Kantor, Neagu and Uecker) and four Scottish artists (Mach, Maclennan, McEwen and Yule) were selected to demonstrate the thesis, all of whom had a seminal or sustained relationship with Demarco. The exhibition had retrospective and contemporary aspects. Major works not seen in Scotland before were shown; Maclennan, Yule, Neagu, Abakanowicz and Kantor were represented by major installations; and Mach, Maclennan and Yule’s works were new commissions. Research was founded on the Demarco Digital Archive (on the development of which McArthur was PI), which enabled a visual documentary ‘timeline’ of approximately 600 images to run through the exhibition, to contextualize each artist’s exhibited work.