EDINBURGH.- Edinburgh Art Festival opens today presenting work by 250 artists, in more than 40 exhibitions across 30 of Edinburgh's museums, galleries and artist-run spaces, including seven new commissions as part of the 2016 Commissions Programme. As the UK's largest annual festival of visual arts, the programme combines ambitious presentations of Scottish and international contemporary art alongside major solo and survey shows of artists from the 20th century and historic movements. The 2016 festival also features numerous performances, guided tours, workshops and talks by some of the world's leading artists and curators throughout the month of August.

Highlights include:

Seven new commissions across the city:

• A major new work reinterpreting the depiction of the female nude in sculpture by Jonathan Owen, allowing access for festival visitors to the interior of the Burns Monument for the first time in 180 years.

• Pakistani artist Bani Abidi's immersive sound installation, using song and poetry to explore the true stories and experiences of Indian soldiers who fought in WW1, uncovering real life voices that have been forgotten, censored and ignored.

• A new neon installation by the internationally-renowned Scottish artist Graham Fagen for the railway underpass by Jacob's Ladder, drawing on histories that have shaped the city.

• A new iteration of New Zealand-based artist Olivia Webb's Voices Project, presenting a 'live monument' created to re-energise community spaces in Christchurch affected by the 2011 earthquakes in her native homeland.

• A filmed portrait of the Irish historian Owen Dudley Edwards by Roderick Buchanan, exploring the historian's lifelong engagement with the work and ideas of James Connolly, born in Edinburgh and executed in Dublin a hundred years ago, for his role in the Easter Rising. The work will be presented in the church in which Connolly was baptised, at the centre of Edinburgh's 'Little Ireland' in the 19th Century.

• Sally Hackett's reinterpretation of The Fountain of Youth; a reflection on the under representation of younger generations within Edinburgh's many monuments.

• Ciara Phillips' Dazzle Ship Scotland: Every Woman - a major co-commission between EAF and 14-18 NOW celebrating the role of women in the First World War.

• Four new bodies of work for Platform: 2016 by emerging artists The Brownlee Brothers, Paloma Proudfoot & Aniela Piasecka, Dorian Jose Braun and Jack Saunders.

Over 40 exhibitions across more than 30 spaces, including:

• New work by leading international artists including Damián Ortega at The Fruitmarket Gallery; an exhibition celebrating 30 years of Inverleith House, featuring work by renowned contemporary artists including Louise Bourgeois, John McCracken, Joan Mitchell and Robert Ryman; an extraordinary showcase of over 110 drawings by the celebrated post-war German artist German artist Joseph Beuys at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, from the ARTIST ROOMS collection, shown together for the first time; and the first permanent installation in the UK by Christian Boltanski at Jupiter Artland, alongside new work by French artist Caroline Mesquita.

• Important presentations of key figures from the Scottish art scene, including the major solo shows of Barbara Rae at Open Eye Gallery and Jonathan Owen at Ingleby Gallery; an exhibition tracing the careers of William Gillies and John Maxwell at City Art Centre; a multi-layered thematic exhibition at Dovecot Gallery, tracing Scottish art from 1945 to the present; new work by Glasgow-based Hayley Tompkins at Jupiter Artland; sculptor Kenny Hunter to be showcased at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop; and a solo show by Jennifer Bailey at Collective, in addition to a new sculptural viewing tower to look into the City Observatory by Birmingham-based Simon & Tom Bloor.

• A strong focus on portraiture: a major exhibition which traces the history of self-portraits across six centuries at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, showcasing works by influential artists from Rembrandt and Gustave Courbet to Marina Abramović and Ai Weiwei; the first solo show in Scotland of one of the 20th century's most important painters, Alice Neel at the University of Edinburgh's Talbot Rice Gallery; self-portraits by the British photographer Jo Spence at Stills; and the major international photography award, Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015, at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

• Significant art historical survey exhibitions including the first major international exhibition showcasing the work of Charles-François Daubigny, a key figure in the development of 19th century French landscape painting, and his relationship with Monet and Van Gogh, at the Scottish National Gallery; an exhibition combining Surrealist works of art from four legendary private collections at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; a major exhibition of Celtic art at the National Museum of Scotland featuring over 300 objects from across the UK and Europe, assembled in Scotland for the first time; and an exhibition celebrating four centuries of 'The Art of the Garden' at The Queen's Gallery Palace of Holyroodhouse.

• Multi-media collaborations, including new work by Canadian duo Donovan & Siegel at Edinburgh Printmakers; and new work commissioned by New Media Scotland's Alt-w Fund for locations including The Travelling Gallery and City Art Centre.

• The next generation of talent in Scotland and beyond including Siân Robinson Davies at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop; a group presentation from the studios at The Number Shop; the annual degree show at Edinburgh College of Art; and a group exhibition bringing together new work by Tim Dodds, Emma Hart and Susan Mowatt at Rhubaba.