Andrew Miller: The Waiting Place (Edinburgh Art Festival Pavilion) - Edinburgh Festival Guide

Acting as the pavilion for this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival, Andrew Miller’s The Waiting Place is a playful summerhouse in the centre of a city where summer is by no means guaranteed. Miller’s The Waiting Place attempts to articulate a vernacular for that most ambiguous of architectural forms. Whether a pavilion/bothy/kiosk/folly, those small scale constructions which have been built for no single over-riding purpose, other than a pleasure in architecture itself.

The work takes its title from Dr. Seuss’ Oh The Places You’ll Go, a depiction of the challenges faced in our journey through life, in which the protagonist finds himself in The Waiting Place, ‘a most useless place’ filled with people waiting for different things to happen.

Seuss’ poem encapsulates the irony and ambiguity which is at the heart of all Miller’s work. He explores the uncertain relationship between how something looks and how it is used. Like the kiosks, shacks and pavilions which inspired it, Miller’s The Waiting Place will be a highly flexible space, hosting multiple uses during the month of the festival – discussions, talks and guided tours, and of course, offering a space in which you’re welcome to simply enjoy the act of waiting for something to happen.

Running time: 480 mins