The Department of Fine and Applied Arts of the University of Western Macedonia in Greece is organising the International Prespa Walking Arts Encounters/Conference 2025 (WAC 25) Walking Home / Walking in Transition. The International Encounters/Conference will be held in Prespa, Greece, during the upcoming summer (Monday, 30 June to Sunday, 6 July 2025). The area of Prespa, a unique environment with two lakes (Megali (Great) Prespa and Mikri (Little) Prespa) is the locus where the field research of the walking art project Visual March to Prespa is taking place, organised by the 1st Painting Workshop of the School of Visual Arts of the University of Western Macedonia. It was initiated in 2007 and the current International Encounters/Conference is a culmination of its activities. In 2019 it joined forces with Made of Walking and other international, national and local partners, leading to three International Encounters/Conferences (WAC) in 2019, 2021 and 2023 during which over 600 participants from all over the world met in Prespa. Since 2024 it has been part of the WALC program.
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 Centre 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.
The partners of WALC are Visual March to Prespes, University of Western Macedonia (Leader, Πανεπιστήμιο Δυτικής Μακεδονίας, UOWM, Greece), walk · listen · create (WLC, Belgium), WalkLab2.PT at the University of Minho (UMINHO, Universidade do Minho, Portugal), Contemporary Art Center Nau Côclea (Centre de Creació Contemporània Nau Côclea, Catalonia, Spain), Association Temps Réel (Gigacircus, France), Action Synergy SA (AS, Greece), School of Gaasbeek (De School van Gaasbeek, SvG, Belgium). The artistic co-ordinators of the WALC project are Geert Vermeire (WLC) and Yannis Ziogas (UOWM).
The topics of the International Prespa Walking Arts Encounters 2025 (WAC 25) Walking Home / Walking in Transition are the following:
- Walking as a feast
- Walking manifestos
- Walking beyond boundaries
- Walking as resistance
- Walking as healing
- Walking … home
- Walking with locals
- Pluriverse walking
- Walking to, with, and from communities
- Walking with children
In total, International Prespa Walking Arts Encounters/Conference 2025 (WAC 25) Walking Home / Walking in Transition intends to elaborate on the aesthetics of walking as an art practice. In contemporary art, the walking practice has become one of the main processes of exploring the cultural environment. As a consequence, a Walking Culture has been created, defined by a new realm of aesthetics and related to the interaction of the body with the Landscape (and vice versa); the artist or the cultural nomad interprets the landscape as an open field where he/she obtains experiences and, through them, develops ideas, concepts and his/her artwork. A particular set of emotions is created during the experience of walking in the landscape and that shapes a characteristic venue of art expression close to the concepts of Psychogeography.
The papers and audiopapers* will examine the various aspects of walking as a contemporary way of expression and understanding of the social environment and the landscape (urban and rural), where human activity is realised. The papers will also examine the future of walking practice and its potential in art, aesthetics and in its applications in pedagogy.
*See for reference on audio papers http://www.soundstudieslab.org/what-is-an-audio-paper/
The art projects and walkshops will be realised during the Walking Encounters: either in situ during the Encounters/Conference and/or remotely in Hubs in various areas of the world. They will refer to the topic of the call, or elaborate on broader issues related to the body/bodies on the move, embodiment, the nomadic process, migration, the concept of home or other aspects of Walking Aesthetics.
The Hubs: A hub is a partner based anywhere in the world who wishes to organize a set of local events or activities that align with the Prespa Encounters/Conference theme and responds to questions and conditions within their own site/network/region. Their activities, during the period of 30 June – 6 July 2025, may include local walking experiences, performances, conversations and panels, allowing as well to be experienced on distance by an Encounters/Conference participant in another location. Hub partners may be artistic or curatorial collectives, local networks or organizations or university programs.