There is an open call for The International Prespa Walking Encounters 2025 (WAC 25).

This is an event in the frame of the Creative Europe co-funded project Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC), starting in January 2024 for four years. Initiated by seven partners from five countries, WALC establishes a larger 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.

The Prespa area, a unique environment with two lakes (Megali Prespa and Mikri Prespa), is the locus where the field research of the walking art project Visual March to Prespa is taking place, organized 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 continuation of 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 WAC has been part of the WALC program.

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).

Professor Miguel Bandeira Duarte (EAAD/Lab2PT) is a member of the Artistic/Scientific Committee and the University of Minho is a partner in the project in which this event is part of, the Walking Arts, Local Communities project (https://www. walctogether.eu/)

Relevant dates:
February 18, 2025: Submission of abstracts/artistic projects
March 10, 2025: Author/artist notification
March 30 to May 30, 2025: Registration
June 30 to July 6, 2025: Walking Meetings/Conference
August 30, 2025: Delivery of completed work / project description and documentation

and the themes are:

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

+ info: HERE