A participatory walkshop by Natacha Antão (Portugal)
How can embroidery become a way of mapping memory, belonging and the living landscape?
Common Ground invites participants to explore the landscapes of Beveren through walking, collective storytelling and embroidering. During the walk, participants are encouraged to identify a tree,that resonates with them, sharing its location and the personal memories, stories or encounters connected to it.
Returning to the gathering space, these individual contributions are gradually woven together into a collective embroidered map. Using cotton thread on linen, participants stitch together traces of memory, ecology and everyday experience, revealing the relationships between people, places and the more-than-human world. The slow gestures of embroidery become a form of collaborative mapping, creating a shared portrait of Beveren's more than human landscapes.
Rather than producing a conventional map, Common Ground creates a space for dialogue, care and collective imagination, where each stitch contributes to an evolving tapestry of local knowledge, personal narratives and ecological connections.
The walkshop unfolds continuously throughout the event, allowing participants to join, contribute and return at any moment.
Format: Participatory walkshop and collaborative embroidery
Duration: Continuous (drop-in throughout the event)
Materials: Linen, cotton thread and embroidery needles (provided)
Participants: Open to all; no previous embroidery experience required.
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.
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