French pedagogue, writer and filmmaker Fernand Deligny (1913–1996) was a visionary whose work transformed approaches to education, mental health and care. Working with autistic and neurodivergent children outside conventional institutional frameworks, he developed experimental living environments and filmmaking practices that explored gesture, silence, movement and forms of presence beyond spoken language. His remarkable film Le moindre geste (The Slightest Gesture) remains a landmark of radical cinema and embodied pedagogy.
This informal coffee conversation, introduces Deligny's life and work through short film excerpts, projections and discussion. Drawing on years of artistic research, they share how Deligny's writings, mapping practices and experimental methodologies have inspired a series of creative and participatory projects at the intersection of walking, art, education and health, created in collaboration between Clara Gari and artist and educator Eva Marichalar Freixa, .
The session invites artists, filmmakers, educators, health practitioners and anyone interested in alternative ways of perceiving, relating and creating to discover a pioneering body of work whose relevance continues to grow today.
Audience: Artists, filmmakers, art lovers, educators, health professionals, and anyone interested in walking, cinema and participatory practice.
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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