Visual March in Prespes was initiated from the need for an artistic practice that defends art created   from the organic relations of culture, place, society and the  individual. For this practice to be fulfilled non-established art   venues have to be established in places unexpected for the art world.

Visual March in Prespes - is a 7 days activity that takes place in Prespes (Florina, Greece). The event is organised from the 1st Painting Studio of the School of Visual and Applied Arts of University of Western Macedonia (coordinator Yannis Ziogas) with the support of the Municipality of Prespes and private sponsors.

Already in its fifth year, Visual March initiates alternative ways of shaping art, working every year in a specific subject introduced from the Artistic Committee and the Artistic Coordinator.

The methods that are used combine experiencing the landscape, interacting to local community and understanding a geographic area that is in the crossroads of three countries. The workshop in Prespes will be dealing every year with a topic that will develop a contemporary idea. The main purpose of our effort is to create in Prespes an event that will be academic, artistic and will involve the local community.

After an experience of four years we aimed and succeeded to establish the Visual March to Prespes as a 10 days process of visual arts activities and establish it an annual event of the Department of Visual and Applied Arts of the University of Western Macedonia. The event has developed a multiple character: research, educational, artistic and cultural.

• The event is a research process because every year it is been explored a contemporary topic that will bring our Department in the frontline of the international visual research.

• It is educational because the students of our Department are fully participating in the process, enriching in that way the activity and their experiences. Simultaneously they get acquainted with the broader artistic community. Here have also been established educational programs for the children and youth of the area.

• The process has an artistic character because the main outcome of the Visual March to

Prespes are artworks that will be created as the outcome of each year's research.

• The broader cultural character of the effort has been realized with the invitation of internationally established artists that have provided to the Visual March to Prespes an international character. The cultural characteristic (along with all these that have been mentioned before) will allow the transformer exchanges with universities and cultural foundations with the neighboring countries (Albania, FYROM) and also with the broader Balkan area.

The following have been achieved during the previous four years of the Visual March to Prespes:

• We have established a systematic cooperation with local institutions Municipality of Prespes, Prefecture of Florina, Cultural Triangle of Prespes) and individuals that have allowed us to utilize the human recourses of the area.

• There have been established realizable educational and cultural activities that can be fulfilled during the Visual March to Prespes.

• There is a full understanding of the geography of the area and this knowledge can be used to establish a contemporary cultural activity that will be related to Florina, to Western Macedonia and the broader Balkan environment.

• There have been recorded on a national level the potential of the process with the articles that have been issued.

• There has been activated an educational program in cooperation with the Cultural Triangle and the children of the area.

We have defined a theoretical frame that will allow the activity to be developed every year. These views have been published in a booklet issued from the University of Western Macedonia

Download the Visual March concept in .pdf