Ariel Guzik more than qualifies as a visual artist who ‘conjures an imaginary world in their work’, a criterion for this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival Commissions Programme that will showcase the work of highly inventive artists including Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Charles Avery.

The objective for Guzik’s complex practice incorporating invention is a practical one, albeit one that alludes to a magical and largely unknown part of our planet: for over a decade, the artist has searched for ways to communicate with cetaceans. ‘Whales and dolphins are true others; a parallel civilisation to ours. If in this process we achieve a simple gesture, just an exchange of glances – as has happened in my experiences in Baja California and Costa Rica with the Nereida capsule – the meaning of this search is fulfilled,’ says Guzik.

For his first exhibition in the UK, visitors will have the chance to get up close with Holoturian, Guzik’s latest endeavour, which is destined to be sent to the depths of the world’s seas. ‘Holoturian is the product of several decades of work designing and building machines and instruments in my lab, with my close group of collaborators,’ he explains. ‘It is also part of a collection of submarine instruments, all of them intended to work with the inhabitants of the sea.’

Holoturian brings Guzik one step closer to realising his ultimate ambition of inventing an underwater manned ship, the Narcisa, that will enable encounters between humans and cetaceans.

Trinity Apse, Edinburgh, until 30 Aug, free.