WALK&TALK

Since its founding in 2011, Walk&Talk has been fostering artistic creation deeply rooted in the archipelago's unique cultural and geographic context. Originally an annual festival, Walk&Talk has continually evolved, adapting its format to provide a space for experimentation and dialogue. Over its twelve editions, the festival has brought together more than 500 artists, curators, and creators from diverse disciplines and geographies who engage with the island through residencies, installations, performances, and public programs.

In 2023, Walk&Talk embarked on a new journey, transitioning from an annual festival to a biennial model. This shift, culminating in its inaugural biennial in 2025, allows for a richer, more immersive engagement with the territory and its communities. The biennial format not only lengthens the program's reach but also deepens its capacity to foster long-term projects and collaborations, with artistic residencies and development taking place in the "off" years to build toward each biennial edition.

Walk&Talk’s programming continues to push boundaries across multiple disciplines — visual arts, music, architecture, and design — while emphasizing participatory and site-responsive approaches. The biennial model strengthens Walk&Talk’s role in international art circuits, fostering new spaces for dialogue and positioning the Azores as a center of contemporary artistic production. Curated and programmed by a communal network of artists, curators, and teams, Walk&Talk draws on collective intelligence to explore the creation, experience, and sustainability of artistic practices. This process is guided by its artistic direction, local stakeholders, and a rotating roster of guest curators who help shape each edition. Walk&Talk remains committed to transforming the artistic landscape by supporting and sharing other positions and discussions from São Miguel with the world.

Curatorial and artistic team 2025

Claire Shea (Toronto, Canada)
Fatima Bintou Rassoul Sy (Dakar, Senegal)
Liliana Coutinho (Lisbon, Portugal)
Jesse James (Azores, Portugal)

Press

"(...) it does not seem as if I have been outlining the essential features of an Art Biennial, but of a socio-ecological project of participatory regeneration through arts and culture, and I truly believe that this is what Walk&Talk intends as a Biennial. If, initially, as a festival, most of the interventions were geared towards the city walls (and the walls of the museum and gallery), today, as the road to the Biennial is built, the relationship with the territory has grown more rooted, engaged and involved. In other words, the curatorial proposal is withdrawing from material exclusiveness to embrace a set of artistic-cultural, inter-relational exercises between the different agencies that make up the Azorean identities."
Benedita Salema Roby, UMBIGO

"Azores, el nuevo ‘Hope spot’ del arte contemporáneo en el Atlántico. El archipiélago, además de paraíso ecológico, se está convirtiendo en un espacio experimental gracias a su festival Walk&Talk"
— Arantxa Neyra, Traveler

“(...) the Azores arts festival is increasingly constituting a stimulating field open to experimentation and artistic plurality”
— Vítor Balenciano, Público

“Walk&Talk was a pioneer in creative tourism (...) and instrumental in encouraging dialogue with the territory, culture and Azorean community”
— Mary Lussiana, Financial Times — How to spend it