The 10th edition of Walk&Talk - Azores Arts Festival, taking place from 15 to 24 July on the island of São Miguel, presents 22 new projects that draw up a program which allows different paths and ways to participate and experience the festival, and that ends with a visual marathon between Sete Cidades and Relva.Following the motto
Where we go it shall be, the festival takes place through several public and cultural spaces on the island: Walk&Talk 10 adds
4 new pieces to the public art circuit (Abbas Akhavan, Luísa Salvador, João Pedro Vale & Nuno Alexandre Ferreira and Tropa Macaca) and
9 exhibitions will inaugurate on the opening weekend (Alex Farrar, Alice dos Reis, Catarina Miranda, Danny Bracken, Joana Franco, Mané Pacheco, Margarida Fragueiro, Nadia Belerique, and Sofia Caetano), occupying spaces such as Arquipélago - Contemporary Arts Center, Museu Carlos Machado, Galeria Fonseca Macedo, Instituto Cultural de Ponta Delgada, or espaço vaga - the new headquarters of the association Anda&Fala, which is the meeting point of the festival.
Six shows and performances will also be premiered, bringing dance, music, and video back on stage (Catarina Miranda, Flávio Rodrigues, Gustavo Círiaco, Lucy Railton & Pedro Maia and Luís Senra), and
1 film (Diogo Lima).
The projects result from Walk&Talk commissions and artistic residencies developed in the Azores between 2018 and 2021; and include four presentations of W&T Young Creators, the call to artists/creators born or resident in the Azores, which rewards the selected authors with a grant for creation, artistic residency, and presence at the festival.
RARA - Design and Crafts Residency of the Azores continues in another edition, curated by Miguel Flor, and bringing together designers (Eneida Lombe Tavares and João Xará) with local artisans, to work on the creation of new objects throughout the festival.
The experience of the 10th edition may be lived either through a free program, as in previous years, or by participating in the
daily excursions - the great novelty of the celebratory edition. The excursions are designed in collaboration with the Talkie-Walkie collective (with Luís Fernandes and Rita Serra e Silva), and comprise 10 unique collective experiences, which depart from the festival’s projects and intersect with other people, places, and contexts on the island. These are guided by a guest expert, have defined routes, and may take place either on foot or by bike, within a limited geographical space, or by bus, when there are several places to visit that are distant from each other.
"We Are Running Out Of Time" is an
activist marathon that closes the festival and crosses the island of São Miguel, between Sete Cidades and Relva, divided into 4 courses (42km, 21km, 8km, and 3km), and in which everyone can participate. It is a marathon of urgency that unites the race to the claims, struggles, and causes of all those who take part. A ilhas studio project, which defends intersectionality as a way of looking at the world, where art, sport, and citizenship come together to generate space for encounter and dialogue.
The
Knowledge Programme will be active throughout the festival period through practical and theoretical activities, and the 4th edition of the
Summer School W&T will take place in a face-to-face and online format, enhancing the exchange between young people aged 16 to 21 with artists, curators, and creatives. The
Talk About conversation cycle also returns to a physical format, crossing artists and festival projects, to generate new spaces for understanding and discussion about art, society, and the world.
Where we go it shall be is curated by Jesse James and Sofia Carolina Botelho, the Artistic Direction of Anda&Fala - Associação Cultural, and Ana Cristina Cachola, guest curator.
The 10th edition of Walk&Talk is one of the pilot events to take place in the Azores, with a contingency plan approved by the Regional Health Directorate of the Azores Government, which enables the return to a physical and face-to-face experience in a safe and controlled manner.