PORTUGAL

The Walking Body (TWB), a yearly weeklong set of artistic activities / art residency about walking in the urban fabric of Guimarães and in its rural surroundings, organized by Lab2PT of the University of Minho.

It goes along with walkshops, artist presentations, a pop up exhibition, a round table and a symposium. On a local level it invites emerging artists/students of various disciplines (theatre, fine arts) and the inhabitants of the city to interact with the city and its surroundings and to walk together, inspired by in situ walkshops with international artists. Artists are selected also because they belong to collectives or initiatives woven in the communities where they live, to bring not only their art but also their methods of working in a social context.

The event intersects intentionally and intensely with the communities (local, academic, artistic) and spaces of the city and its surroundings, involving and collaborating with its cultural stakeholders. Main focus is the sharing of experiences and knowledge by means of walkshops, between artists and participants, involving its diverse strata and their particular knowledge, understanding cultural, social, political and economic potential, as such being more than an artistic event but a weeklong dialogue between artists, students and local communities reimagining the city and its surroundings by walking together. The objective is to bring walking arts in and to the city and its surroundings as a transformer and catalyst through collective creativity and learning.