Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC) is an artistic cooperation project, co-funded by the European Union, Creative Europe, starting in January 2024 for four years. With seven partners from five countries, WALC establishes an International Center for Artistic Research and Practice of Walking Arts, in Prespa, Greece, at the border with Albania and North Macedonia, backed up by an online counterpart in the format of a digital platform for walking arts.
WALC builds on the previous work of hundreds of artists and researchers already practicing Walking Arts as a collaborative medium, and having met at the significant previous walking arts events and encounters in Greece, Portugal, Spain, France and during online activities at walk · listen · create.
The project leans strongly on involving local inhabitants, and on engaging with local activists and nature workers, young artists, and curators, open for an international public.
The partners are: Visual March to Prespes, University of Western Macedonia (leader, Πανεπιστήμιο Δυτικής Μακεδονίας, UOWM, Greece), walk · listen · create (WLC, Belgium), Walk.Lab2.PT at the University of Minho (UMINHO, Universidade do Minho, Portugal), Contemporary Art Center Nau Côclea. (Centre de Creació Contemporània Nau Côclea, Catalonia, Spain), Association Temps Reel (Gigacircus, France), Action Synergy SA (AS, Greece), School of Gaasbeek (De School van Gaasbeek, SvG, Belgium), extending the network to other and new players in the field of walking arts during the coming years.
WALC will realize two international walking arts encounters in the natural reserve of Prespa and simultaneously organize important events and ten walking arts residencies in Greece, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, complemented by activities in other countries, after an open call. WALC will conclude in 2027 with a major exhibition in Greece and a happening Belgium.
Physical events go along with horizontal online events, such as training, meetups, talks, workshops, and collaborative artistic processes, through an online platform gathering all the partners, and also the artists, audience, and communities. The whole process is backed by a digital and online platform and a digital archive/database for walking arts as a base for the future international center for walking arts. .
Tthe Inaugural Walking Arts & Local Communities online Café was realized on Tuesday 27 February.
APA style reference
Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC) is an artistic cooperation project, co-funded by the European Union, Creative Europe, starting in January 2024 for four years. With seven partners from five countries, WALC establishes an International Center for Artistic Research and Practice of Walking Arts, in Prespa, Greece, at the border with Albania and North Macedonia, backed up by an online counterpart in the format of a digital platform for walking arts.
WALC builds on the previous work of hundreds of artists and researchers already practicing Walking Arts as a collaborative medium, and having met at the significant previous walking arts events and encounters in Greece, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, and during online activities at walk · listen · create.
We acknowledge the support of the EU Creative Europe Cooperation grant program in the framework of the European project WALC (Walking Arts and Local Community).
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
In “The Human Condition”, the philosopher Hannah Arendt told us how human beings, as they grow up, have to go through all the stages of humanity in their learning process, from their origins to the present day. It is only in this way that each individual, as he or she goes through the whole process that has made us human, is able to add, at each moment, a pearl, a small grain of divergence or dissent, and thus make the knowledge stored by our species evolve.
In this place where Portugal was born, we have been relearning the path that has brought us to live together in WALC, a project already written but still only on paper. For four years each one of us is going to walk into it with the rest in order to make it a reality.