​​"Walking Home / Walking in Transition" are the guiding themes for the 2025 Prespa International Walking Arts Encounters, inviting the global community of walking artists to gather in Prespa next July. These themes serve as an umbrella, encompassing a wide range of ideas that define walking arts today, and contributing to the vibrant, diverse communal art space that Prespa has fostered since 2019.
The main titles are a direct reference to the millions of people on the move around the world—whether as refugees or migrants. The open call for the event is announced around International Migrants Day, celebrated on December 18. This day highlights the struggles and stories of the hundreds of millions of migrants globally, drawing attention to the complex challenges they face. War, climate disasters, and economic pressures continue to force people to leave their homes in search of safety or opportunity. Tragically, last year saw the highest number of migrant deaths in transit. However, even amid these hardships, people on the move also bring stories of resilience, hope, and strength.
Walking, as an artistic practice, is also a symbol of transition. Once associated with landscape painting, philosophy, and literature, walking emerged as an independent art form in the second half of the 20th century. In the late 1960s, it became a medium showing a new and spiritual understanding of our relationship to land. Walking as art became a means to connect deeply with the earth, fostering empathy and a greater sense of ecological awareness.
The Prespa Walking Arts Encounters and the European WALC project (Walking Arts and Local Communities) it is part of, which extends both in Southern and Northern Europe, create physical and online spaces exploring the social implications of walking and its relationship to modern and contemporary art practices. While walking emerged as a powerful art form in the 20th century, by the 21st century it has become a hugely diverse and complex medium. Today, the art of walking functions not only as a subject and practice but also as a tool for healing, fostering social change, and strengthening natural ecosystems.
As an evolving art form, walking itself is on the move—an art that migrates. The Prespa Walking Arts Encounters and WALC provide a platform for walking artists who are constantly evolving in their practice, questioning art establishment and society, collaborating on, and envisioning alternative futures. The Prespa Walking Arts Encounters and WALC offer a home for artists who are walking both the physical and metaphorical landscapes of change, and they reach out to you.

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