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Demarco’s Edinburgh It gave Edinburgh a ‘much needed special dimension’ and transformed it into a place of ‘cultural pilgrimage’. The Fringe and its key institutions were the product of international figures, such as Jim Haynes and the Traverse, ‘not created by Scotland’. The Edinburgh Festival is, in Demarco’s eyes, not really a Scottish Festival but a celebration of European and world art and culture. It was in some sense a way to ‘Europeanise’ Scotland using the language of art as a form of communication. A Culture Warrior Another possible charge against Demarco relates to his conception of European culture. His fear about the breaking up of Europe and the decline of its culture does echo public intellectuals and commentators of the right. Thinkers such as the late Roger Scruton 46 and his many acolytes (most prominently Douglas Murray 47 ), believe the defence of European culture is a pressing need to retain social coherence. In trips reminiscent of Demarco’s cultural voyages, Scruton regularly travelled to Eastern Europe during the Cold War, teaching, and assisted dissidents fighting political orthodoxy. Scruton has, since his death, become a lodestar among cultural conservatives. They see European culture under threat from outwith and within, from a relativising cultural elite which has lost faith in its own culture. Demarco’s language of the need to ‘defend’ European culture is certainly echoed by these conservative ‘culture warriors’. Like them, Demarco considers himself to be engaged in a ‘fight for civilisation’. Despite the echoes, there are also key differences. For Scruton and those influenced by him, the answer to this lies in embracing a conservative national populism in order to preserve national cultures from ‘globalising’ forces. In marked contrast, Demarco sees art as inherently international. Further, Demarco’s embrace of art with a clear political perspective, notably Beuys’, would appal Scruton who would see it as part of a ‘politicisation’ of culture and a ‘flight from beauty’. 48 Demarco also has a much broader and more dynamic conception of culture. From Scruton’s perspective, Demarco’s championing of the avant-garde would place him among those who have undermined the coherence of European culture. Scruton was generally critical of the ‘ugliness’ of modern art and often dismissed avant-garde as ‘abstract kitsch’. 49 Culturally, Demarco is a risk-taking radical, encouraging experimentation. While he sees art as a unifying force, this is not in some cuddly, comfortable way. Most of the art he has championed has been ‘difficult’ and ‘broke the 30
Taking the Long View rules’. 50 For example, Demarco (and selections from his archive) features prominently in Birrell and Finlay’s short history or ‘archaeology’ of the Scottish counter-culture, Justified Sinners. 51 The book couples visual art with the type of political engagement that alarms the likes of Scruton. What Demarco has promoted has not been art which provides simple answers but provokes a questioning and explorative frame of mind. Like Marina Abramović, he is ‘thrilled by the unknown’. 52 He seems to exemplify Camus’ belief that artists should ‘create dangerously’. 53 Demarco often quotes George Lascelles (Lord Harewood), Festival Director 1961–1965, who believed that the Festival ought to aim to give ‘the public what it’s going to want tomorrow’, not what was comforting. For Demarco, the great achievements of European culture have been forged by this explorative attitude. Demarco’s life has been a constant journey, driven by a craving to discover and share great art, especially that on the boundaries of acceptability. The ground-breaking Strategy: Get Arts being the most obvious example. The ‘marginal’ figures he championed, such as Joseph Beuys and Marina Abramović 54 , are now acclaimed and considered ahead of their time. This spirit often led him to turn his back on institutions he helped build. ‘I had to get out of the Traverse when it ceased to be avant-garde enough.’ A Man Out of Time? Demarco himself now finds himself feeling alienated from something he helped build. Like many Edinburgh folk, he has started to chunter about the way the Festival and Fringe inconvenience life in the city. Demarco had mixed feelings when the 2020 Festival was cancelled. He hoped that the pause might offer an opportunity to rethink and ‘re-charge’ the Festival. George Steiner had suggested such a rethink should have occurred at the time of the 50th Festival. 55 Demarco believes this rethink is now long overdue. He is not alone. The cri de cœur is part of the tradition of the Festival and Fringe. Writing in the Guardian in 2022, Brian Logan echoed Demarco in writing that this ‘world-class cultural crucible’ had reached ‘crisis point’. However, Logan was talking about the contemporary ‘iteration’ of the Fringe; as the breeding ground for the next generation of comedy stars. He still believed that it remained ‘a jewel in the crown of this country’s – and the world’s – cultural life’. 56 More recently, the Fringe Society chief executive Shona McCarthy suggested that the Fringe was facing an existential crisis. 57 Again, her 31
Page 3 and 4: RICHARD DEMARCO has personally expe
Page 5 and 6: By focusing on The Road to Meikle S
Page 7 and 8: Demarco’s Edinburgh RICHARD DEMAR
Page 9: In Memory of Hugo Burge of Marchmon
Page 12 and 13: 3 The Spirit of Krashny - the Festi
Page 15 and 16: Preface As an impecunious teenager,
Page 17 and 18: Introduction Requiem for the Unknow
Page 19 and 20: Taking the Long View: What drives R
Page 21 and 22: Taking the Long View to try and con
Page 23 and 24: Taking the Long View environment. T
Page 25 and 26: Taking the Long View He was condemn
Page 27 and 28: Taking the Long View Haynes’ path
Page 29 and 30: Taking the Long View A Bloody Archi
Page 31: Taking the Long View A New Enlighte
Page 35: Taking the Long View than galleries

Demarco's Edinburgh by Richard Demarco and Roddy Martine sampler

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