CONFLUENCES

During this WALC Confluence 12, the art collective Gigacircus presents their research about walking and the representation of the body online in collaboration with the Mexican performer Gustavo Alvarez and the artist and singer from Chile, Claudia Urrutia. At the end of the presentation, the collective performs a walk with the collaboration of Anne Marie Lopez from the Walklistencreate group and with the artist walker from Paris, Ridha Dhib.

In this video, Geert Vermeire and Fred Adam explain the content and organization of the WALC online course starting in March 2026.

Fred Adam and Geert Vermeire host this special Confluence to announce the launch of an online course on walking art and an interactive map to strengthen engagement with walking artists and collectives across the WALC ecosystem. There follows a presentation at 20h CET by Yannis Ziogas regarding the Encounter to take place in Prespa in summer 2027: 7 + 7 PLACES (towards WAC 27).

Our July 29th, 2025, a meeting took place under the auspices of creative spirit and included a first presentation of our central concepts and practice methods for WAC 27.

The Chinese characters for fa fei fa, the no-method method of Shitao (an important Chinese Buddhist monk, calligrapher and landscape painter of the early Qing dynasty). According to Shitao’s method, Body and Landscape must become one in order to give birth to what he calls ‘new’ formal interpretations which will thus lead us to the ‘no-method’. For Shitao method should not exist, or, as per his own words, “my method (fa) is the no-method (fei fa)1” which alludes to the need for experiencing the world firsthand instead of relying on preconceived notions or tradition in order to give rise to meaning. As we mentioned in our first discussion, it is such experiential processes that will be the core of our next meetings which will take place at regular intervals and in which we will venture to shape a collaborative space, explore the main concepts of Walking and Local Communities and reassert the core values of Encounters 2027.

These main concepts will be:
-To dwell on the notion of Place.
-To create a new, contemporary milieu for Walking Arts and their practice.
-To embrace Local Communities and everything they have to offer in an open and creative exchange of ideas and actions.

The area of the Prespes is our Open Laboratory, where we negotiate these timeless and universal issues. The communities involved in this process, meeting and coexisting in Prespes, include: the local inhabitants, all those who have participated in the Walking encounters since 2019 and the artists/researchers/participants who have been working tirelessly, since 2007, in the Visual March to Prespes. Our first meeting in July has strengthened our commitment to our joint efforts which will take us to July 2027 and beyond.

Tonight’s 7 + 7 PLACES (towards WAC 27) event will unfold in three parts, establishing the structure for all our future preparatory ones.

• A short teaser which will work as a brainstorming cue for all the ideas that will be presented.

• A series of presentations of the 2025 walkshops/lectures by their creators, during which we will have the opportunity to further discuss and review everything that took place in the last Encounters but also to gain better insight into the works as well as the people behind them.

• Individual presentations for the upcoming Places for 2027 by those proposing them.

With this 3-part structure we aim to enable discussions both on what took place in 2025 and what will be the best ways to proceed towards 2027. This combination of presentations from 2025 works with those intended for 2027 will continue in the following meetings with different presenters each time.
Following this structure, the second part of our November meeting will involve six WAC25 participants who will present their works while in the third part we will have two proposals included in the 7 + 7 Places (which will be added to the three already presented in our July meeting).

The schedule will unfold as follows:
19:30 The upcoming WALC course

20:00 CET Introduction to 7 + 7 Places
Presentation of a Teaser to provoke ideas and thoughts.
WALC 25 Artists

• Ermina Apostolaki: Walking as a Feast for the Senses: Healing, Memory, and Belonging in Vrontero.
• Lydia Matthews: Through the Eyes of Foragers: Gift-Gathering.
• Viv Corringham: How far is home.
• Christopher Kaczmarek: Drawing Cartographies of Perception
• Clementine Butler-Gallie, Clare Qualman: Walk & Play: Streetside Games from Around the World.
• Kel Portman: Walking the Line.

21:00 CET
7 + 7 places
Nikos Theodoropoulos: Despotiko (Varnoundas): A Scarred Terrain 

Vaggelis Strempenis: My place (το μέρος μου)
21:00 CET
Discussion

1 In the last page of his Album for Daoist Yu (which dates back to around the late 1680s), Shitao concludes his work with the phrase “Shi fa feifa jicheng Wofa” which is translated by J. Cahill as “This method is no method — herein lies my method” (Cahill, J. (1982). The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Painting. The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, 1978-1979. 218. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press). Shitao’s no-method method mainly refers to his breaking free of the established norms of traditional Chinese painting. At the same time, however, it speaks of the effort to create an individual approach towards imagery, one that interacts freely with observed visual cues and the materials used.

Η Συνάντηση μας την Τρίτη, 29 Ιουλίου 2025 πραγματοποιήθηκε σε δημιουργικό κλίμα. Έγινε πρώτη παρουσίαση της κεντρικής ιδέας και πρακτικής του WAC 27.

Παραθέτουμε στην αρχή το ιδεόγραμμα μέθοδος/μη μέθοδος του Σίταο που εκφράζει την ανάγκη να ενσωματωθεί το Σώμα με το Τοπίο και με αυτόν τον τρόπο να σχηματίζει «καινούργιες» (όπως τις αποκαλεί) ερμηνείες φόρμας. Αυτό οδηγεί στην «μη-μέθοδο». Για τον Σιτάο δεν υπάρχει μέθοδος, ή όπως το έλεγε χαρακτηριστικά «μέθοδος (fa) μου είναι η μη- μέθοδος (feifa)»1 υποδηλώνοντας με αυτόν τον τρόπο την ανάγκη της πρωτογενούς εμπειρίας, που την προτάσσει έναντι της προκαθορισμένης διαδικασίας ή και της παράδοσης Όπως αναφέρθηκε στη συνάντησή μας η διαδικασία θα διαμορφωθεί δυναμικά με τις συναντήσεις που θα πραγματοποιούμε σε τακτά διαστήματα ώστε να διαμορφωθεί μια συμμετοχική συνθήκη η οποία θα διερευνά τους άξονες του Περπατώντας και Τοπικές Κοινότητες (Walking and Local Communities) ώστε οι Συναντήσεις του 2027 να είναι ακόμη πιο ουσιαστικές:

Οι άξονες αυτοί είναι:

-Θα κατανοήσει την σημασία του Τόπου.
-Θα δημιουργεί μια νέα σύγχρονη συνθήκη για την Τέχνη του Περπατήματος και τις πρακτικές του.
-Θα συμπεριλαμβάνει τις Κοινότητες και όσα οι Κοινότητες έχουν να προσφέρουν σε μια δημιουργική ανταλλαγή ιδεών και έργων.

Οι Πρέσπες είναι το Ανοικτό Εργαστήριο όπου διαπραγματευόμαστε τα παραπάνω διαχρονικά και παγκόσμια θέματα.. Οι κοινότητες που έχουν συναντηθεί και συμπορεύονται μέχρι τώρα στις Πρέσπες είναι: οι κάτοικοι της περιοχής, όσοι συμμετέχουν από το 2019 στις διαδικασίες των Περιπατητικών Συναντήσεων, οι κάτοικοι της περιοχής, οι καλλιτέχνες και όσοι/-ες εργάζονται δημιουργικά από το 2007 στην Εικαστική Πορεία προς τις Πρέσπες. Στην πρώτη μας συνάντηση του Ιουλίου δυναμώσαμε την συνθήκη της συμπόρευσής μας και έτσι θα συνεχίσουμε μέχρι τον Ιούλιο του 2027, και πέρα από αυτό.

Για την Τετάρτη 26 Νοεμβρίου, 2025 19:30 CET θα υπάρξουν τρία μέρη της σύνάντησής μας που θα είναι το σχήμα που θα χαρακτηρίζει τις συναντήσεις της προετοιμασίας. Στο πρώτο μέρος θα ξετυλίγεται ένα σύντομο teaser που θα αποτελεί μια αφορμή για τις ιδέες που επεξεργαζόμαστε. Στο δεύτερο μέρος όλοι/-ες που υλοποίησαν περιπατητικά εργαστήρια ή εισηγήσεις θα τις παρουσιάζουν για να τις συζητήσουμε μία-μία και να αποκτήσουμε εποπτεία όλων όσων έγιναν το 2025. Θα μας δοθεί έτσι η ευκαιρία να γνωρίσουμε καλύτερα τα έργα που παρουσιάστηκαν καθώς και όσους/-ες τα δημιούργησαν. Στο τρίτο μέρος θα παρουσιάζονται ένα-ένας όλοι οι Τόποι του 2027 από όσους/-ες τις προτείνουν. Με αυτόν τον τρόπο θα έχουμε την δυνατότητα σε κάθε συνάντηση να συζητάμε για όσα υλοποιήθηκαν το 2025 και να φανταζόμαστε το πώς τι θα μπορούσε να γίνει το 2027. Η διαδικασία με την διπλή παρουσίαση των όσων έγιναν το 2025 και με την διερεύνηση των όσων μπορούν να γίνουν το 2027 με βάση τους προτεινόμενους τόπους θα συνεχίσει και στις επόμενες συναντήσεις, κάθε φορά με διαφορετικούς ομιλητές/-τριες

Ακολουθώντας το παραπάνω σχήμα, στο δεύτερο μέρος της συνάντησης του Νοεμβρίου έξι συμμετέχοντες/-ουσες στο WAC25 θα παρουσιάσουν το έργο που υλοποίησαν. Στο τρίτο μέρος θα παρουσιαστούν δύο ακόμη τοποθεσίες των 7 + 7 τόπων, που θα έρθουν να προστεθούν στις προηγούμενες τρεις που παρουσιάστηκαν τον Ιούλιο.

Το πρόγραμμα της συνάντησης θα είναι το εξής:

19:30 Εισαγωγή

Θα παρουσιαστεί ένα Teaser που θα ενεργοποιήσει σκέψεις και ιδέες.

19:40 έως 20:30 CET (8 λεπτά ο καθένας/-μια)
Καλλιτέχνες/-ιδες του WALC 25

• Ερμίνα Αποστολάκη (Ermina Apostolaki): Περπατώντας ως μια Γιορτή για τις Αισθήσεις: Θεραπεία, Μνήμη και Ανήκειν στο Βροντερό (Walking as a Feast for the Senses: Healing, Memory, and Belonging in Vrontero)
• Λυδία Μάθιους (Lydia Matthews): Μέσα από τα Μάτια των Τροφοσυλλεκτών : Δώρο-Συγκομιδή (Through the Eyes of Foragers: Gift- Gathering)
• Βιβ Γκόριγκαμ (Viv Corringham): Πόσο μακρυά είναι το σπίτι (How far is home)
• Κρίστοφερ Κακσμάρεκ (Christopher Kaczmarek): Σχεδιάζοντας χαρτογραφίες της Αντίληψης (Drawing Cartographies of Perception)
• Κλεμεντάιν Βατλερ-Γκάλι (Clementine Butler-Gallie), Κλαιρ Κουόλμαν (Clare Qualman): Περπατώντας και Παίζοντας Παιχνίδια του Δρόμου από όλο τον Κόσμο (Walk & Play: Streetside Games from Around the World)
• Κελ Πορτμαν (Kel Portman): Περπατώντας την Γραμμή (Walking the Line)

20:30 έως 21:00 CET (8 λεπτά ο καθένας/-μια) 7 + 7 τόποι
Νίκος Θεοδωρόπουλος:
Βαγγέλης Στρεμπένης:

21:00

Συζήτηση

1 Ο Σιτάο έγραψε στο τελευταίο φύλλο του περίφημού του βιβλίου εικόνων Ζωγραφισμένο για τον Αρχαίο (που χρονολογείται στα τέλη του 1690), με τα λόγια: “Shifafeifa) jichengWofa;’ Τα οποία ο Cahill μεταφράζει ως «αυτή η μέθοδος είναι μία μη-μέθοδος-και εκεί ακριβώς βρίσκεται η μέθοδός μου». Αναφέρεται στο Cahill, J. (1982). The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Painting. The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, 1978-1979. 218. Κέιμπριτζ, Μασαχουσέτη: Harvard University Press. Το μέθοδος/μη- μέθοδος του Σιτάο αναφέρεται κυρίως στην προσπάθειά του να αποτινάξει τα ζωγραφικά συστήματα παρελθόντων ετών. Ταυτόχρονα όμως εμπεριέχει την προσπάθεια να δημιουργηθεί ένα ατομικός χώρος προσέγγισης της εικόνας που διαδρά με τις αφορμές της παρατήρησης και της χρήσης του υλικού.

Do you want to know how our 2025 adventure went? How we set off from Badalona and crossed beaches, mountains, and rivers on our way to the Pyrenees — and climbed the Taga with a cello?

Do you want to hear about our shared library, lovingly cared for by an artist?

Would you like to see our collection of handmade maps and cartographies, our treasures kept in little boxes, our travel journals, our stones our feathers and the testimony of hundreds of kilometres walked together?

Join us for this talk and we’ll share with you everything we know how to tell.

Introduced by Clara Gari who conceived El Grand Tour, an annual nomadic residency in the foothills of the Pyrenees. She will be joined by poet and travel narrative writer Marc Caellas, who devised special technique for each of the Grand Tour participants to record a journal of their travels, and brought a collective narrative in a workshop on the journey. You can read a copy of an article (only available in Spanish) he has since written of his reflections of his first Grant Tour experience.

Within the hour long event, there will be a report on progress in the WALC project, given by either Geert Vermeire and /or Yannis Ziogas.

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.

We are keen to hear from attendees and participants of this year’s Prespa Encounter – were you there? What were your highlights and how would you like the Encounter to evolve? If you have been to a previous Encounter in Prespa, but were unlucky enough not to be there earlier this month, we would still like to hear about the highlights and memories you have too.

Was it meeting old friends, meeting new friends, discovering new ways of making walking art, testing out a work-in-progress, building connections, sharing knowledge, developing trust or was it merely the scenery or the affordable booze?

Guided by Yannis Ziogas and Geert Vermeire the co-Artistic Directors, with more than 120 walking art submissions, the Prespa Encounters 2025 in July was a logistical challenge tackled by Aspasia Voudouri and colleagues from the University of Western Macedonia and the local community. The key challenge now is how to foster and grow the exchanges and inspiration that the Encounter generated – we are open to your suggestions.

The proposed theme of the Prespa Encounter 2027 “7 plus 7 Places to Walk” will be presented. The University of Western Macedonia and the Prespa Encounter Organising Committee are looking forward to the initiation of the participatory process that will lead to the 2027 Encounter in Prespa.

Download the text with the concept of the participatory process below.

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.

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.

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.

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.