2007

Coordinator: Yannis Ziogas

Organizing Committee: Aggeliki Avgitidou

Fotini Kariotaki

Hiking Guide: Theodoris Fatsis

The Visual March to Prespes was realized for the first time in 2007, from June 29 to July 1^st. The Visual March to Prespes aimed:

[…] to initiate original visual activities. It explores an attempt that supports the argument that cultural experience exists wherever there is a meeting point of people, places, ideas and images. The march into the natural environment of Prespes is also a march towards communication between those who participate, and also with the environment that they discover along the itinerary.

The experience of the first year has allowed us to realize that Prespes is a gigantic crossroad with multiple levels. It is a crossroad of three countries; it is a point where pelicans, cormorants and other rare species of birds are meeting during their journey from Africa to Europe and vice versa. It is a point where fierce battles have taken place not only in the distant past but also in our recent history. Prespes is a place where myth is meeting history, and where the fairytale is shaped through reality. In that environment of overwhelming beauty itineraries of history, myth, cultures, nature are expecting to be explored from us that we meet in the area. At the same time Prespes is the meeting point of those who met in the Visual March to Prespes 2007, those who have shared the experience for a few days 9but also for those who will share it the years to come).

In one of the most characteristic moments of the march while we were in one of the spot with the highest altitude, at 2150m, we found a dugout with deactivated rockets from the Civil War.

It was then when our guide, a local from Florina, told us:

We leave them there, so that there is something to remind all that happened here once.

We have been transformed into collectors of events, and that was one of the most intense experiences that we had this year. The experience of 2007 had shown that human activity and experience are the ones that initiate the artistic process

The total number of the participants (instructors, students, visitors) was 16.