A guided walk through the Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe and storytelling with Rien Van Meensel
Discover one of Europe’s largest tidal wetlands through a day of walking, landscape interpretation and storytelling.
The programme begins with a guided walk through the Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe, a unique cross-border nature reserve shaped by tides, mudflats and centuries of human interaction with the landscape. Led by an experienced local guide, participants will explore the ecological, historical and cultural richness of this extraordinary marshland. (Guide fee: €10 per person.)
Following an optional light lunch at Café Saeftinghe, the afternoon continues with Stories from the Marsh, in which storyteller Rien Van Meensel shares a compelling family story rooted in a disappearing world of wetlands, fens and marshes. Through memory, myth and lived experience, the performance reflects on the changing laws of the wetlands and the fragile relationship between people and place.
The guided walk and the storytelling session may be attended independently, allowing participants to join either or both parts of the programme.
Programme
09:30 – Gathering at Café Saeftinghe
10:30 – Guided walk through the Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe Visitor Centre and nature reserve (€10 guide fee)
12:30 – Optional light lunch at Café Saeftinghe (at participants’ own expense)
14:00 – Stories from the Marsh with Rien Van Meensel
An invitation to experience the wetlands through both feet and imagination, where landscape, ecology and storytelling meet.
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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