Inspired by Michel de Certeau’s reflection that “walkers write the text of the city, without being able to read it,” this workshop proposes walking as a collective act of writing — with the body, in space, and across scales. Participants explore Guimarães not through a panoramic or cartographic gaze, but through embodied movement.
The process begins digitally, as participants trace the letters of the word Peace (in their own language) onto a map of the city. These letters become walking routes. Over several days, participants physically follow these forms through streets and public spaces, transforming the urban landscape into a living script.
On the final day, walkers move together through the city in silence, tracing the word Peace with their bodies. Rather than reading the map, they write it through collective movement.
The workshop also connects to the Earth Alphabet for Peace, inviting participants worldwide to draw and walk the word Peace in their own landscapes, creating a global choreography of walking and locative writing.
23/03 14:30 – 23/03 10:00
Hosts
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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