Edinburgh’s international festival of visual theatre and animated film, MANIPULATE, is a celebration of visually stunning work, with a focus on artworks that breathe life into the inanimate or tell stories primarily through imagery.
Opening with The Dab Hands, a trio of three metre tall, colourful, light-up hand puppets that was commissioned by Puppet Animation Scotland, the project was conceived by artists Fergus Dunnet and Ronan McMahon, and can be found around the Traverse Theatre and Summerhall on the opening night of the Festival.
The Dab Handswill welcome partygoers at the MANIPULATE Opening Party at Summerhall before returning with two further free street performances at the Meadows and the Royal Mile on Saturday 11th February.
Throughout the ten days of the Festival, Sandman’s UN-retainedwill be projected onto the front of the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge, from 5 – 11 pm each night. A collaboration between choreographer Sabine Molenaar, multimedia artist Gertjan Jiasion and composer Jochem Baelus, it combines dance, audiovisual production and projection mapping to tell the timeless, weightless story of being human.
Interactive augmented reality trail FAUNA returns with a series of ten large-format posters by French artists Adrien M & Claire B popping up around Edinburgh West. The posters have a custom-built augmented reality element which can be discovered through a free smartphone app.
This year for the first time, Fruitmarket will be the venue for MANIPULATE’s full line up of animated film where over 15 countries, including Scotland and the UK, Mali, Iceland, Iran, Azerbaijan are represented across the two programmes on Saturday 4th February that are also available to watch online for 48 hours.
Partnered with the Edinburgh Short Film Festival, Animated Highlights showcases an array of animation styles and untold stories from emerging animation talent around the world.
Finally Blood Moon,a free, non-ticketed, outdoor work-in-progress joins the programme in the Summerhall Courtyard on Wednesday 8th February.
Manipulate runs from 2nd – 12th February 2023 with tickets available at
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 