24-03-2022
Walk&Talk 11 presents a program that expands throughout the island of São Miguel to reflect on what emerges and exists in the first place
The 11th edition of Walk&Talk, the Azores Arts Festival, will take place on the island of São Miguel between July 14 and 23, bringing together thirty artists, collectives, and curators under the theme In the first place, and will present several new projects that cross visual arts, performance, music, architecture, and design.
In the first place proposes a reflection on what arises and exists in the first place, rethinking current narratives and positionality as a key aspect in the definition of systems of power, knowledge, and identity. Questioning divergent temporal and spatial constructions and recognizing multiple voices, presences, and positions, the program aims to think about word, speech, sound, and music as forms of time travel, proposing new perspectives and readings on the spaces we inhabit - whether physical or metaphorical, and the relationships we establish between geographies, resources, different species, and ideas.
Over ten days, Walk&Talk occupies various spaces and landscapes on the island of São Miguel. Once again, the festival will have a "home" in São João Square, downtown Ponta Delgada. A temporary pavilion, designed by Ilhéu Atelier, will be built to welcome the public as the main stage and meeting point. This new project was selected from an international architecture competition, which received more than 70 proposals. The program of exhibitions and performances extends to vaga - espaço de arte e conhecimento (headquarters of the organizing association, Anda&Fala), Museu Carlos Machado, Ponta Delgada’s Municipal Culture Center, Galeria Fonseca Macedo, Teatro Micaelense, and Arquipélago - Contemporary Arts Center.
Walk&Talk 11 presents a set of new commissions from artists and collectives, resulting from the residency programs started in 2020/2021, such as Ellie Ga, Ana Quiroga & Estela Oliva, Diogo da Cruz & Fallon Mayanja, Tiago Patatas & Dinis Sottomayor, Matthew C. Wilson & Nuno da Luz, Catarina Miranda, and the winners of the W&T Young Creators grant, Catarina Gonçalves and Cristóvão Maçarico.
The W&T Soundsystem is one of the novelty of the festival in 2022. Designed and created specifically for the 11th edition and built by Sérgio Coutinho and Francisco Antão, the project will take the form of a mobile sound system, presenting itself both as a programming device and as an artistic and engineering object. The Soundsystem will be activated by guest artists and musicians and in addition to complementing the pavilion's program, it will tour various spaces on the island.
The 11th edition's program expands and seeks multiple positions through projects and other artists (to be announced in May), and through various activities being prepared in the scope of the music program or the knowledge program, which proposes talks, excursions and thematic visits, and the W&T Summer School, which once again will establish a space for experimentation for young Azoreans creatives.
The RARA residency crossing design and craftwork returns for its 9th edition, where designers worldwide and local artisans cross techniques, materials, know-how, and affection to create new objects, coordinated by Miguel Flor. On the last weekend of the festival, the European project Centriphery (of which Walk&Talk is part) will have its Azorean stage with a collaborative and territorial project developed by performers Gustavo Ciríaco and Tellervo Kalleinen, architects Mezzo Atelier and musician Ovidiu Mihaita.
Walk&Talk 11 is programmed by the community of artists and teams involved in the organization, to think about the creation, fruition, and sustainability of contemporary art practices, and has curatorial coordination by Jesse James, Sofia Carolina Botelho (Artistic Direction), and the invited curator for the 11th edition, Irene Campolmi.
Walk&Talk 11 is funded by the Ministry of Culture - DGArtes, the Government of the Azores, the Municipality of Ponta Delgada, and the Creative Europe program.