Our highlights from the Edinburgh Artwork Competition because it celebrates its twentieth anniversary

On a vibrant and blustery morning, sheltered in a dappled glade exterior Edinburgh, we’re standing in entrance of a classical bust by the Scottish sculptor Ian Hamilton Finlay. Titled X Muse (2008) the bust depicts Sappho, an historic Greek poetess whose work was to be sung accompanied by music. Atop an 8-foot excessive Portland stone plinth, gazing wanly into the center distance up at one other Finlay work – the Temple of Apollo (2005) – Sappho is a quietly commanding presence. Standing between the 2 works, it appears like time is briefly suspended.

We’re at Jupiter Artland, the sculpture park and residential of Robert and Nicky Wilson who’ve, since 2009, commissioned a unprecedented vary of site-specific artworks throughout their 100-acre web site. Phyllida Barlow, Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin and Cornelia Parker are a mere handful of the 30-odd everlasting works right here. One among Wilson’s most up-to-date ventures is the launch of X Muse (pronounced ‘tenth muse’) – the primary blended barley vodka impressed by the spirit making traditions of Scotland, infused with ‘artwork considering’, because the model’s co-founder and inventive director Vadim Grigoryan places it.

X Muse is of and from, not simply Scotland, however Jupiter Artland itself: Hamilton Finlay’s sculpture gave the model its identify and classical roots; the water utilized in it composition comes from an historic aquifer on the property, which sits beneath Charles Jenck’s otherworldly Cells of Life (2010). Jencks’ magnificent work of land artwork impressed the vodka’s bottle design by Stranger & Stranger. Throughout the property there’s a new Buckminster Fuller-esque tasting pavilion – the X Muse Helicon – by Formafantasma. It’s a beguiling gesamtkunstwerk with each element designed by the Italian duo. Outreach and schooling are core pillars of the Wilsons’ mission and Jupiter Artland has an interesting, far-reaching and spectacular programme of occasions, on and off web site referred to as Jupiter Rising.

X Muse is a murals in and of itself, so it’s becoming that the model can also be a sponsor of the twentieth Edinburgh Artwork Competition (Robert Wilson is a former Chair of Edinburgh Artwork Competition). EAF is a fulcrum second within the Scottish, nationwide and international arts calendar with a mess of exhibitions, installations, occasions and gatherings unfold throughout 30 venues everywhere in the capital. The artwork crowd is a thirsty one. Towards the backdrop of controversy over the way forward for sponsorship for a number of cultural occasions within the UK, here’s a partnership that feels symbiotic. Augmentary, even.