Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art

This year's Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art (Gi Festival) kicked off on Friday with a White Bike ride through the city. 50 white bikes have been provided by NVA for visitors to the festival to use between venues. This is a first for Glasgow - I wonder how many will be left after the 2 week event?? I spotted my first one on the way home from work on Saturday. It was perched against a lampost outside the Glasgow Sculpture Studios.

Further along the same road, I stumbled upon this rather crazy car - covered in Banksy -style graffiti.



On closer inspection, you can see the rather macabre subject matter.



I can't seem to find out any more about it...

Just over the fence from the parked car lies the Sculpture Studio car park. Out the corner of my eye I could see two men up a ladder working away on some kind of metal structure. I assumed it was some more graffiti artists and carried on up the road blissfully listening to Motley Crue at full volume.

Traipsing down the same road this morning and Saturday's 'metal structure' was fully formed. It looked like the gateway to an abandoned theme park or the door to a dystopian underworld. The rusty metallic sign read "Vestiges Park".


Okay, I'm intrigued. I'd read over the Gi Programme and to be honest, it all seemed like the usual wanky, self-indulgent contemporary art that I try to avoid. How wrong could I be??
So, my colleague Fiona (another Art History graduate!) and I went for a wee wander over the bridge this lunchtime. We were welcomed at the gates by the Oolite Sisterhood who gave us a map of the park and told us to mind our feet on the uneven ground. We held up our map to the light, as instructed, to find out where to go: Through the little blue gate...

I've taken a barrage of photos, but I don't want to spoil the magical experience for those who might manage to make it along before it closes on 3rd May. I'll attempt to upload them onto another account and post a link here for those of you who live too far away.

EDIT: Here's the link to the photos - but don't spoil it for yourself!

Vestiges Park does not exist, cannot exist, will not exist. The artists involved deny all knowledge of the project and the authorities are mute. In some cases these artists may not actually exist – they split, double, multiply, evaporate, condense, dissolve and merge until truth and fiction, science and magic become indistinguishable. Vestiges Park is a chimera – there and not there – dare to find us, dare to enter and let us take you to the edgelands, the rotting places where nothing is as it seems... ...and if you cannot find us it is because we have fallen off your maps
- Lady Ada Lovelace