The Walking Body 6
The Walking Body (TWB) is an international meeting of walking artists. The 2025 meeting is dedicated to ‘communities of change’, communities that are plural, on the move, and sensitive to issues of the social and natural ecology of the environment in which we live.
TWB explores local communities as dynamic entities in constant transformation, connecting people, territories and ecologies through movement, the art of walking and the relationship between the city and the landscape of Guimarães
TWB will take place from 26th of March to 17th of April in Guimarães, in Bairro C, with the meeting point at the Garagem Avenida Gallery/School of Architecture, Art and Design.
TWB includes a week of walkshops, a round table with the invited artists and an exhibition (26 March to 17 April).
This event is free of charge. Anyone interested in art and the act of walking can take part in these actions by registering on the form: https://forms.gle/Uc8DnjqM7nczRSyy7
The walkshops will take place throughout the week from 7th to 12th of April, on walks around the area with a focus on Bairro C, and the meeting point will be the Avenida EAAD Garage Gallery (Av. Dom Afonso Henriques 250). TWB has 7 artists taking part in the workshops: Geert Vermeire (BE), Jordi Lafon (ES), Miguel B Duarte (PT), Montsita Rierola (ES), Natacha Antão (PT), Stefaan Van Biesen (BE) and Rosa Soares (PT).
Thematic framework ‘Communities of Change’
TWB approaches local communities in the plural sense, not limiting a community to a static, single or isolated group. Local communities are, but at the same time are more than, the sum of their residents. Communities develop over time, including students, local artists, minorities, under-represented groups, migrants and refugees. Living in a community means constantly rethinking where you live and who you live with. Central to TWB6 is the possibility of movement and change. A specific focus of TWB is on the fragile social and natural ecology of the environment in which we live. Although it is a city, Guimarães also includes and is in close proximity to rural areas, constituting a hybrid and fragmented landscape in a dispersed and rich territory. Restlessness, through connection with place and through the art of walking, is what defines TWB.
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.
On WLC, this conference is maintained by: Miguel Bandeira Duarte, Natacha Moutinho, Geert Vermeire
