The independence referendum, in which Scottish artists and cultural workers played such a part, has been over for just more than a week.
The National Collective, the grass-roots artistic campaigners for Yes, have said they will continue their work in some form, and there have been interesting columns and blogs penned by the playwright David Greig and others. How the artistic push for Yes evolves and continues will be a tale worth following. Those artists who worked for independence, even if heart-broken now, are not going to go away.
Meanwhile, the arts diary continues on its way. And other conversations are being had. One of these will be called Past + Future, and will be held in another country, Italy, beginning next weekend at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. There, Scotland is being represented by the Edinburgh-based architects Reiach and Hall, whose £68,000 project will seek to re-examine and champion the history of Scottish modernism, especially those buildings built in the 1950s and 1960s. These are buildings, it has been acknowledged, that do not always enchant the public. Often stark, brutal, with ample use of concrete, their place in the modern urban realm has long been discussed. Neil Gillespie, design director at Reiach and Hall, believes they were built at the time with a sense of optimism and hope for the future. But the future of those buildings is not always so optimistic. Many are demolished.
Fraser MacDonald, the historical geographer at Edinburgh University, wrote last year about Scotland's complex relationship with modernism and concluded: "by the time the style gains recognition, we find ourselves adjusting to its loss." One of its finest examples, the A-listed St Peter's Seminary at Cardross, is in ruins. But at least it is being saved in some form by NVA's ongoing project to stabilise the ruin and turn it into a centre for education.
Reiach and Hall's residency, lasting a month, will look at a series of disparate modernist buildings in Scotland, from social housing in Glasgow to the Gala Fairydean stadium in Galashiels, Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy's Crematorium, churches by Alan Reiach and the Dundee University tower by Robert Matthew.
The Scottish residency will produce a series of newspapers that will be distributed in Venice, with articles including recollections of buildings by Irvine Welsh and an interview with the late Professor Andy MacMillan, former head of the Mackintosh School of Architecture and a key part of the Gillespie, Kidd and Coia practice that designed St Peter's Seminary.
He passed away in August. Four teams will interact with architects from other countries, and the research will form the basis of an exhibition and events at The Lighthouse in Glasgow in February and March next year.
Whether any of this investigation and cogitation will inform the new buildings of today and tomorrow is moot.
But Gillespie, like many, thinks the past can inform the present and the future, saying: "The questions asked then remain to be answered today."
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