This walk is based on a long walking experience (approximately 25 km) between Braga and Guimarães, connecting, in particular, the university campuses. A slow-paced journey aims to reclaim the pleasure of walking as an everyday gesture and to develop a heightened awareness of the diversity of stimuli in the landscape.
Beyond the individual experience, the long walk provides an opportunity for participants to connect, stepping away from daily obligations and creating space for the exchange of affinities. Often, it is the surrounding geographical context that fosters these experiences.
Along a diverse route, oscillating between a spiritual experience and a physical challenge, sensations of crossing, distance and proximity, diffusion and gathering emerge. These contrasts shape both the journey and the transformations that may arise from it.
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.
