The Walking Body 7
The Walking Body 2026 – 7th edition
Liberdade / Freedom – Guimarães, Portugal | 23–28 March 2026
For six days, Guimarães becomes an international laboratory for artistic walking as The Walking Body (TWB) returns for its seventh edition, dedicated to the theme Liberdade / Freedom. Artists from different countries will explore walking as a poetic, social and political practice through walkshops, long walks, public interventions, digital experiments and open conversations. The programme reflects on freedom as the ability to move, exist and share space. Activities take place mainly at Galeria da Garagem Avenida (EAAD) and across the city and its peri-urban environment, culminating in an open public discussion on Freedom in the Arts on 26 March.
Attendees
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
Footnotes to freedom
Footnotes to Freedom is a three-part workshop exploring how freedom is experienced and expressed in the city of Guimarães. Participants share and map places where they feel a sense of freedom, discussing how these moments relate to access and public
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Map Scramble 1
There is growing interest in how each of us documents walking art, especially as walk · listen · create and its predecessor, the Museum of Walking, has been gathering archival walking pieces for almost 10 years. Early last year, Clara Gari of Nau Côclea, our EU partner in the Walking Arts and Local Communities project,
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+2 Belonging & Letting Go: Freedom Morning Running Club
Free Steps between Walls and Hills is a 22 km walk from Guimarães to Citânia de Briteiros, proposed by AVE and The Walking Body. Through collective walking, participants explore the territory as a relational landscape of body, memory, and environment
• Map Scramble 2
The second of an initial series of three Map Scrambles in which walking artists share how each of them documents walking art, specifically be adapting, modifying or creating their own maps. Early last year, Clara Gari of Nau Côclea, our EU partner in the Walking Arts and Local Communities project, hosted a Confluence on ‘documenting
• +3 Map Scramble 3
The third of an initial series of three Map Scrambles in which walking artists share how each of them documents walking art, specifically be adapting, modifying or creating their own maps. Early last year, Clara Gari of Nau Côclea, our EU partner in the Walking Arts and Local Communities project, hosted a Confluence on ‘documenting
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+2 Free Steps between Walls and Hills
Free Steps between Walls and Hills is a 22 km walk from Guimarães to Citânia de Briteiros, proposed by AVE and The Walking Body. Through collective walking, participants explore the territory as a relational landscape of body, memory, and environment
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