Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 152

and Richard Demarco marked the formal establishment of the artistic
credential of the Fringe through the presentation of cutting-edge drama
to an international audience both throughout the entire year as well as at
the International Festival and the Fringe in August of each year. One can
argue, however, that the distinction between high and low art has lost its
initial meaning. Today, the official Fringe is the largest event of the �� that
the Edinburgh Festival encompasses and the world’s largest arts festival.
Undoubtedly, this contrast is not an accurate reflection of the scope or indeed
of the quality of the performances included in the programs of the recent
years. The remnants of this historical distinction are today visible merely in
the formal features of the two festivals, such as participation on the basis
of invitation alone for the International Festival, and their programs that
different degrees of flexibility to certain forms of performative art, such as
comedy.
This essay has offered a few reflections on the concepts of culture and
culture wars. It first introduced them as concepts embedded in historical
contexts, offering two main views of culture at the intersection of politics,
artistic practice, and identity. In line with anthropological and sociological
definitions, culture wars can represent clashes of ways of life, or of different
cultural identities. To illustrate this distinction, the essay discusses the case
of the contemporary Syrian refugee crisis and the European response to the
refugee crisis as an illustration of clashing identities. The everyday problems
of Syrian refugees living in Europe are distant and confined to refugee camps,
and political and cultural elites fail to address them. A number of established
artists seek to raise awareness of this very cultural divide and provide artistic
solutions that facilitate engagement, dialogue, and the ultimate integration
of refugees. At the same time, culture wars can also manifest themselves at
the level artistic performance and production. In this sense, culture wars
materialize in clashes between different cultural products. To elucidate this
meaning, the essay discusses the distinction between high and low art in
the context of the Edinburgh Festival, focusing on the early history of the
Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe.
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