2024 marked the tenth Grand Tour journey: a 300-kilometre walk comprising artists from all disciplines, in all
32 people walked from Puigcerdà in the Catalan Pyrenees to Barcelona. Along the way they were welcomed at Contemporary Art centres including Konvent.0, as well as by local shepherds, Dirk and Mireia from Can Ginebreda, and forest caretaker Pep Picarrocs. They visited SiteSize an artist collective that work in the metropolitan area who have been collecting the memories of immigrants from the 1950s and 1960s who built the Barcelona of today.
The impact of the Grand Tour goes far beyond what its participants bring or create on the way, as it inspires and is inspired by local communities and the landscape through which it passes.
Grand Tour is an experience of walking, of living together and of contact with local people, in which Art has a place that prioritises participation over excellence. There is a place for everyone to create, to talk, to reflect, to dream, building a nomadic library, creating musical compositions, while leaving a record of their life together.
The artists Anna Piatou (Greece) and Alba Sauleda (Catalonia) who have received the Grand Tour 2024 residency grant will present their work-in-progress. Anna on historical memory, repression and border conflicts and Alba on oneiric realities as a foundation for new forms of living together.
NOTE: Some presentations will be made in Spanish, and where possible we will provide English translation.
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The co-funded EU Walking Arts and Local Communities (WALC) project offers an opportunity for public scrutiny of the project, by running bi-monthly free “Confluence events”, in which project partners come together to present how the aspect of the project for which they are responsible is progressing.
This hour-long online event is hosted by Clara Gari from Nau Côclea, will start with a discussion between the WALC partners and include a progress report presented by Geert Vermeire and Yannis Ziogas (if reception permits), the second part will be a presentation of Grand Tour.
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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