The film by artist Rachel Maclean that is Scotland's show at world's biggest arts festival in Italy has found its permanent home - back in Scotland.

The University of Edinburgh has bought Maclean's already acclaimed film, Spite Your Face, which is premiering this week at the 57th Biennale di Venezia.

The 35 minute film, made for the Scotland + Venice show for the 2017 festival, takes on 'fake news', misogyny, consumerism, religion and a host of other issues in a film which is being displayed at the Chiesa di Santa Caterina.

The purchase by the university means that the work is to be owned by the institution which Maclean attended.

In 2009, Maclean graduated from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), which is part of the University of Edinburgh.

A modern fairy-tale drawing upon the Italian folktale, The Adventures of Pinocchio, the film is positioned at the altar of the former church, as an eight metre high projection.

The film has been written by, and stars, Maclean in a variety of roles, including Pic, the Pinnochio character, as well as a Madonna/Fairy character who is sexually assaulted by him.

The Scotland + Venice project, backed by the National Galleries of Scotland, the British Council and Creative Scotland, has worked with a £350,000 budget.

Maclean said: "I’m so excited about the acquisition and humbled to be represented alongside such an impressive and important collection of artworks.

"ECA has been hugely significant in my development as an artist.

"My experience studying Drawing and Painting and the inspirational people I met at the college was life changing and I’m delighted to be currently tutoring on the dynamic Fine Art Post-Graduate course."

Neil Lebeter, the University of Edinburgh’s Art Collections Curator, says: “Rachel Maclean is one of the most highly regarded contemporary artists working in Scotland today.

"As both a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art and Scotland’s representative on the world stage at the Venice Biennale, the acquisition of Spite Your Face to the University’s Art Collection is hugely significant.

"This will provide an ongoing legacy for Scotland + Venice 2017 and celebrate the University’s key role in the overall project.”

The news comes just over a year after the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art acquired Maclean’s previous film commission, Feed Me, presented as part of British Art Show 8.

Based in Glasgow, Rachel Maclean (1987) was educated at Edinburgh College of Art where she completed her BA in Drawing and Painting in 2009.