Walking back and forward.
More then just a conference and encounters, the Walking Arts Encounters Conference in Prespes in July 2019 transformed the Prespa lakes area of Western Macedonia in Greece into an unlimited open laboratory of visual ideas and practices related to walking.
Travelers from more than twenty countries arrived and narrated what they were bringing with them. The venue for these narrations was a movement, within the act of walking. And this movement continues after the meeting in Prespes, reverberating in between and awaiting the return of the event to Prespes in July 2021.
Prespes was a moment reaching both to past and future, where earlier initiatives as Visual March to Prespes (GR), Made of Walking (Intl), Sound Walk September/walk listen create (Intl), Lab2PT (PT), Gran Tour (ES) and Interartive (Intl) converged and resonated. The echo of Prespes sounded in further events during 2020 in Spain and Portugal.
A group talk and group presentation with key representatives of the initiatives above delves deeper into the Prespes events and its resonance.
With Yannis Ziogas (WAC Prespes / Visual March), Geert Vermeire (WAC Prespes / Made of Walking / Drifting Bodies / walk listen create), Lydia Matthews (WAC Prespes / Parsons New School, New York) Clara Gari (Gran Tour/ Relational Geographies) and Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio (Interartive / Relational Geographies) (tbc), Natacha Antão Moutinho (Drifting Bodies / Walking Body).
Associated events: Walking Encounters/Conference in Prespes, the (postponed) encounters/conference Relational Geographies in Catalonia 2020, walking arts encounters/conference Drifting Bodies/Fluent Spaces in Guimaraes July 2020, Gran Tour in Catalonia August 2020, Visual March in Prespes, Made of Walking, the Walking Body/Lab2PT in Guimaraes, Sound Walk September/walk listen create and the Interartive Walking Arts/Walking Esthetics publication.
An event hosted by Analogio Festival 2020 Athens and Sound Walk September/walk listen create.
6 thoughts on “Walking beyond borders – walking arts before and after the pandemic. Between Prespes 2019 and 2021.”