CONFLUENCES

Anna Luyten introduces the Belgian nomadic contemporary art project Publiek Park, which explores public city parks and gardens as its exhibition grounds. The project invites both international and local artists to create artworks that draw inspiration from the surroundings in a site-sensitive manner.

Walking is employed as a curatorial methodology to discover the parks with artists, researchers, partners, neighbours and other stakeholders. Publiek Park aims to uncover the social and historical layers of public green spaces through a vibrant public programme that brings together visual art, music, film, and performance. Each edition is complemented by a  Walking Guide, including artist’s contributions, historical overview, and essays by contemporary thinkers. This comprehensive publication accompanies the visitors in their journey, providing diverse perspectives on the project and its unique natural and urban settings. 

Publiek Park is initiated and curated by Jef Declercq, Anna Laganovska, Koi Persyn & Adriënne van der Werf, and this evening’s presentation will be made by Jef, Koi and Adrienne.

NOTE: Some presentations will be made in Dutch, and where possible we will provide English translation.

When booking your ticket, take a moment to bring your walk · listen · create profile is up to date, or add a bio to create one if you haven’t already. To keep up to date with the Walking Arts and Local Communities over its four year duration, make sure you are subscribing to the weekly walk · listen · create newsletter.

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 Anna Luyten from De School van Gaasbeek, will start with a discussion between the WALC partners and include a progress report presented by Geert Vermeire and Yannis Ziogas , followed by a presentation of Publiek Park.

How do you document Walking art? Asks your host, Clara Gari from Nau Côclea.

For some artists documenting their work is a process of making a further an artwork in itself, for others the walk is the document.

In 1998, the CDAN (The Centre of Art & Nature) in Huesca, Spain, commissioned a piece for its outdoor sculpture and land art collection from the artist Richard Long: a circle of stones to be placed at the foot of the Maladeta peak, the highest in the Pyrenees that was to be named “Spanish Circle”. Richard Long accepted the commission but requested to create the work during a solo walk through the Aigualluts Valley. Five days later, the CDAN received a photograph with indications that the piece was located in a hard-to-reach area. Thirty years later, nature has made the circle of stones disappear but Richard Long’s work – as a piece of walking art – remains one of the most important pieces in CDAN’s collection.

This case excellently illustrates the questions we will discuss here: for some artists, walking itself is the artwork. For others, the documentation of the journey is not the work itself but is essential for communicating the project on a lasting basis. In such cases, how do they document the work, and how do they share and show it to the public? What resources and strategies best capture the experience and creation of the artist: travel journals, photographs, drawings, sound recordings, video?

So we are asking prominent Walking Artists to tell us how they document their walking work. 

We would like to draw from as wide a world of artists, including from our own community, and this event is to launch a series of online café events over the next three years, to which we will invite artists to discuss documenting work.

We are delighted that Ernesto Pujol, social choreographer, author  and educator, will illustrate how he documents his walking art. 

Confluence events are an opportunity for you to learn more about the part-EU funded Walking Art and local Communities project, and at this event, project Artistic-coordinators Yannis Ziogas and Geert Vermeire will in addition to updating you with the WALC project progress, will also choose examples of what they consider well-documented work from previous Prespa Walk Encounters.

NOTE: Presentations will be made in English, and where possible we will provide Spanish translation.

When booking your ticket, take a moment to bring your walk · listen · create profile is up to date, or add a bio to create one if you haven’t already. To keep up to date with the Walking Arts and Local Communities over its four year duration, make sure you are subscribing to the weekly walk · listen · create newsletter.

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.

The partners in the Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC), may be a little nervous for this evening’s Confluence, when they will be reporting on their achievements and successes for the WALC project to date. Each will be speaking for a few minutes about how the project has developed in their own constituencies, the collaborations they have already established, and their aspirations for developing opportunities in their communities for walking art interventions. This Confluence is their end of first year report.

The event will be coming live from Guimarães in northern Portugal, where Babak Fakhamzadeh has been setting up a photographic exhibition called ‘in loving memory‘. Part psychogeographic, part interventionist, our urban explorer and Derive app-creator colleague, has been leaving his mark through cities that he has walked over the last 18 months. ‘Hidden in plain sight’, whether you see it as criminal damage or as an ingenious art installation, Babak has left his mark on countless benches.

Babak’s exhibition will be opening in time for The Walking Body 6, that like this Confluence, is hosted by the Portuguese WALC partners from the University of Minho. The Confluence will be introduced by Geert Vermeire and Yannis Ziogas, WALC’s co-artistic coordinators.

When booking your ticket, take a moment to bring your walk · listen · create profile is up to date, or add a bio to create one if you haven’t already. To keep up to date with the Walking Arts and Local Communities over its four year duration, make sure you are subscribing to the weekly walk · listen · create newsletter.

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.

The co-funded EU Walking Arts and Local Communities 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.

The first 30 minutes of these hour-long online events, will be presentations and discussion between the WALC partners. The second 30 minutes provides an opportunity of the Confluence host partner to invite a walking artist to present their work.

WALC Confluence 1 is hosted by Sylvie Marchand (FR) and Fred Adam (FR/ES) of GigaCircus, and their French-speaking guest artist is Mohamed-Nour Wana (CHAD/LBYA). The second half of the Confluence will be conducted in French, with a transcript of Mohammed’s presentation made available in English.

Arriving in Paris in 2016, Mohamed-Nour completed a diploma in inter-cultural mediation at INALCO in Paris and he has been a member of the Atelier des Artistes en Exil since 2017.

Long faced with answering questions about ethnic, cultural, linguistic and geographic identity that cause thousands of people to flee their homes, he wrote and published a book about his experiences and those of fellow refugees.

Le projet cofinancé par l’UE Walking Arts and Local Communities offre l’opportunité d’un examen public du projet, en organisant des « événements Confluence » bimensuels gratuits, au cours desquels les partenaires du projet se réunissent pour présenter l’avancée de leur projet.

Les 30 premières minutes de ces événements en ligne d’une heure seront des présentations et des discussions entre les partenaires WALC. La deuxième demi-heure est l’occasion pour le partenaire hôte de Confluence d’inviter un artiste  à présenter son travail.

WALC Confluence 1 est animé par Sylvie Marchand (FR) et Fred Adam (FR/ES) de Gigacircus, et leur artiste invité francophone est Mohamed-Nour Wana (CHAD/LBYA). La seconde moitié de la Confluence se déroulera en français, avec une transcription de la présentation de Mohammed disponible en anglais.

Arrivé à Paris en 2016, Mohammed-Nour a obtenu un diplôme en médiation interculturelle à l’INALCO à Paris.Il est membre de l’Atelier des Artistes en Exil depuis 2017.

Longtemps confronté à des questions sur l’identité ethnique, culturelle, linguistique et géographique qui poussent des milliers de personnes à fuir leur foyer, il a écrit et publié un livre sur son expérience et celles de ses camarades réfugiés.

When booking your ticket, take a moment to bring your walk · listen · create profile is up to date, or add a bio to create one if you haven’t already. To keep up to date with the Walking Arts and Local Communities over its four year duration, make sure you are subscribing to the weekly walk · listen · create newsletter.

Thanks to the EU Creative Europe Cooperation grant this is a free event – when booking your ticket, take a moment to bring your walk · listen · create profile is up to date, or add a bio to create one if you haven’t already. To keep up to date with the Walking Arts and Local Communities over its four year duration, make sure you are subscribing to the weekly walk · listen · create newsletter.

The co-funded EU Walking Arts and Local Communities 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.

The first 30 minutes of these hour-long online events, will be presentations and discussion between the WALC partners. The second 30 minutes provides an opportunity of the Confluence host partner to invite a walking artist to present their work.

WALC Confluence 2 is hosted by Clara Gari from Nau Côclea

Do you like to travel on foot? Grand Tour is a 250km walk with poets, dancers, storytellers, visual artists and musicians. 21 days across beautiful landscape and hidden places in Catalonia, it is a shared celebration and this year, you can be part of it.

Learn from previous Grand Tourists what such an adventure entails: Pau Catà, a researcher studying cabinets of curiosities, artist residencies and artists communities, Zoe Balasch, a dancer, Tamsin Grainger sound walk composer, and Anna Piatou a photo-performer.

Come and share with us what we are planning for Grand Tour 2024 in August. The trip will start in the Pyrenees and end in Barcelona, where travellers will enter the city by a most unexpected place.

When booking your ticket, take a moment to bring your walk · listen · create profile is up to date, or add a bio to create one if you haven’t already. To keep up to date with the Walking Arts and Local Communities over its four year duration, make sure you are subscribing to the weekly walk · listen · create newsletter.

WALC Confluence 3 is hosted by Sylvie Marchand (FR) and Lionel Camburet (FR) of Gigacircus, and their guest artist is Gustavo Alvarez.

The Gigacircus French Art collective will introduce the artist, walker and performer Gustavo Alvarez with whom they collaborated in several projects. Gustavo Alvarez plays with broken silences, using the performance as a ritual space (liminal space). Spectators are confronted with situations generated in the action, Gustavo is always encouraging them to participate directly in the action, proposing a joint creation, creating an atmosphere with the permission and participation of those involved in the performance; managing to create what Hakim Bey calls “Temporary Autonomous Zones”, in which the conventional rules of exchange and etiquette are at least questioned or completely abolished.

Sylvie Marchand writes: “I am very happy and over proud to introduce you to a Grand Mexican artist. Gustavo Alvarez, a performer and an anthropologist, is at the heart of great number of collective events and meetings, stimulating artists to resist and go beyond their passion!”

• Continent Rouge, Dispositif immersif connecté à un parcours sonore
• Voz Lactea, Rencontre artistique internationales autour de la langue maternelle
• Danzar o Morir, public space, installation
• Cantar o morir, Film, sur la force des rituels Raramuris

When booking your ticket, take a moment to bring your walk · listen · create profile is up to date, or add a bio to create one if you haven’t already. To keep up to date with the Walking Arts and Local Communities over its four year duration, make sure you are subscribing to the weekly walk · listen · create newsletter.

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.

The first 30 minutes of these hour-long online events, will be presentations and discussion between the WALC partners. The second 30 minutes provides an opportunity of the Confluence host partner to invite a walking artist to present their work.

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.

When booking your ticket, take a moment to bring your walk · listen · create profile is up to date, or add a bio to create one if you haven’t already. To keep up to date with the Walking Arts and Local Communities over its four year duration, make sure you are subscribing to the weekly walk · listen · create newsletter.

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.