The Edinburgh Reporter May 2022

18 WHAT’S ON
CULTURE • LITERATURE • EVENTS • MUSIC • MUSEUMS...
A force of nature
A film about the life of Ricky Demarco
highlights the need for a permanent
home for his important archive
Marco Federici
Demarco Digital Archive
By RODDY MARTINE
FROM GROWING up in wartime Scotland
and the fledgling years of the Edinburgh
Festival to becoming Scotland’s greatest
ambassador for visual and performance art, the
name of the Leith-born and educated
Italo-Scot Richard Demarco, CBE, is
synonymous with inspiration, creativity and
controversy. A force of nature unto his ninth
decade, this self-taught impresario has never
shirked the unthinkable, the seemingly
impossible in pursuit of the Road to Meikle
Seggie, that mystical magical cultural landmark
of deepest Kinross from which, he insists, all
roads merge into a world of discovery.
Generations have come and gone since 1963
when he co-founded the Traverse Theatre and
first of his Demarco Galleries but that same
passion endures. For the past ten years, some
might say not before time, the award winning
film director and producer Marco Federici has
been working on RICO (The Richard Demarco
Story), a thought provoking documentary on
the life of this unrepentant maverick.
This was the man who in 1980 chartered
the sailing ship ‘Marques’ and engaged the
great Orcadian author, George Mackay Brown,
to steer it through Hebridean waters he had
only previously written about. It was Demarco
Richard with
Joseph Beuys
who transported festival audiences to
performances of Macbeth on Inchcolm
Island in the Firth of Forth, and brought the
Free Stage Theatre of Minsk to Kirkcaldy to
perform The Scottish Play on the ruined
ramparts of Ravenscraig Castle.
Richard Demarco’s track record is such that
the Scottish establishment has simply never
known how to tame him while others, Poland,
France, Italy, Germany and Romania, have
showered him with honours. In 2013, he was
nominated for the European Citizen’s Medal.
Federici has successfully recruited very rare
archive footage from the estates of some of the
legendary creative giants of continental Europe,
among them the legendary German genius
Joseph Beuys, Polish theatre director Tadeusz
Kantor, and Romanian artist Paul Neagu. A
contemporary flock of disciples also bear
testimony with friendships ranging from the
Serbian performance artiste Marina
Abramovic, journalist Andrew Marr, actor
Brian Cox, and Chair of the Arts Council of
England Sir Nicolas Serota.
RICO won the audience prize for "Best Doc"
at the Central Scotland Doc Fest, with a "Best
Director" Award at the Warsaw and Valencia
Fusion Festivals. The film has also made the
"Official Selection" at the Toronto Independent,
Liverpool International and Yale University's
New Haven Doc Fest. Independent screenings
during this year's Edinburgh Festival are being
scheduled with national television and
streaming for wider audiences later in the year.
Marco Federici insists he was motivated to
make “a film that brings a greater
understanding, albeit still an introduction in
many ways, to the sheer scale of Richard
Demarco's astonishing contribution to Scottish
and international culture in a courageous,
uncompromising career that spans the last
seven decades.
“After watching the film, the first question
Ricky at 90 plus is often out and about at
Edinburgh events - but never without his camera
we should be asking ourselves is ‘How did he do it?’
Thousands upon thousands of artists, exhibitions
and performances. So many lifetimes of work are
encapsulated into one.”
Federici’s documentary sets out to peel away the
flamboyant persona of "Ricky", as he is widely
known, and offers him the space to become "Rico"
(his mother's nickname for him). This, according to
Federici, enables Demarco to articulate his often
moving philosophy concerning our co-existence
with art and science, our responsibilities to nature,
and "those that are yet to be born".
We are also reminded of just how fragile his
unique archive of documents and memories
remains, currently sheltered at Summerhall, the
Edinburgh events venue (www.summerhall.co.uk),
but in desperate need of the necessary investment to
conserve as a totally unique and important record of
Scotland’s cultural significance in modern times.
RICO: The Richard Demarco Story is on Facebook.
Heading north for a community festival
THE NORTH Edinburgh
Community Festival (NECF) will
take place in West Pilton Park and
the West Pilton Neighbourhood
Centre on 7 May from noon
to 6pm.
The day will offer fun and free
entertainment with learning and
upskilling at its core.
This will be a platform for
Emergency Services, Local
Colleges, Community Groups,
Local Organisations and
Employers to give young people
an insight into the work they
do and show them possible
career pathways.
Willie Black, NECF Planning
Committee Chair said: “I think this
is going to be tremendous, and
everybody in North Edinburgh
will be encouraged to think that
maybe bad days are behind us.
A walk from Muirhouse to Pilton
will take place at 12 o’clock and I
want everyone to come along.”
Music from the Tinderbox
Orchestra and local bands, and
lots to eat and drink.
Facebook: northedinburghfest
ONE BODY: A
RETROSPECTIVE
Catherine Simpson
Saraband • £9.99
In One Body, Edinburgh
author Catherine Simpson, pictured
right, shares her breast cancer
experience from diagnosis to trying
to process the news, from deciding
how and when to tell people, to her
experience of treatment and its
effects, from initial physical recovery
to the just as difficult and ongoing
psychological recovery.
She does not shy away from
expressing the disbelief and fears in a
forthright manner as well as the
reactions from others, sometimes
supportive, sometimes crass, usually
well-intentioned. I absolutely agree
with her when she says she hates
cancer and its treatment being
described as a battle or a fight.
That so infuriates me as it suggests
that those who do not recover