The Criss-Crossing project fluctuates between different registers of the artistic tradition. Firstly, it takes as a reference the fact of walking as an aesthetic practice, concretised in drifting, capable of stimulating observation and reflection on our surroundings. Simultaneously, it incorporates the use of photography to generate a record of the experience of walking through the streets of Guimarães. Finally, on returning to the exhibition space, where the workshop will take place, each of the selected images will be projected onto the wall with the aim of drawing in pencil the details that have caught our attention. The idea is to do this by following the lines of the chosen elements, which can be interwoven with the other previous drawings, to create a mural weave. The drawing grows and becomes a universal act of representation, a collective rehearsal that prolongs and expands the experience of the different drifts of the groups involved, to bring together a diverse, rich, heterogeneous voice that welcomes a community.
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.
