the Milena principle : Current Projects 2025
Prospection Made Of Walking Prosperpolder Beveren Belgium.
Prospecting Made Of Walking (2025, 2026, 2027... an international study project on social and artistic themes) in Prosperpolder Beveren with Ines De Smet (Tourism Department Beveren), Hilde Reyniers (Culture Department Beveren), Anna Luyten (philosopher), Annemie Mestdagh and Stefaan van Biesen (Private Foundation Van Biesen-Mestdagh & the Milena principle).
Prosperpolder is an international polder and a hamlet of approximately 200 inhabitants divided between the borough of Kieldrecht in the Belgian East Flemish municipality of Beveren-Kruibeke-Zwijndrecht and the hamlet of Prosperdorp in the Dutch Zeelandic Flemish municipality of Hulst. The polder dates back to 1846. The hamlet is also known as Prosperdorp or Prosper. It is located in the north of the borough of Kieldrecht, close to the Dutch border. Since 2013, there have been plans to convert a large part of the Belgian section of the polder at Prosperhaven into a nature reserve.
Anna Luyten. Master of Arts in Philosophy, Advanced Master in Applied Science of Literature, in Drama and Theater, and in Cultural Anthropology. Multifaceted creative professional, writer, performer, dramaturg, and radio/television maker. Teaches at the Maastricht Institute of Performative Arts in Holland,, the School of Arts at University Ghent in Belgium, and the University of the Arts London. Co-founded the research group 'Wandering as a discipline' at the School of Arts Ghent. Her role in WALC goes throughout all work packages as one of the project managers, curatorial support researcher, writer and trainer.
Lecture Made Of Walking 01.02.2025.
About the history and future plans of Made of Walking.
This project is also a pilot project in preparation for a forthcoming Made Of Walking project in Prosperpolder Beveren in 2026. Lecture/talk on the origins and future of Made of Walking.
Artists Stefaan van Biesen, Geert Vermeire and Fred Adam connect people with each other and with nature, and do not shy away from new technology to do so. Their work is not just to look at; it is meant to be part of, with attention to physical movement and solidarity. By activating senses, they create deeper connections with the living environment. Stefaan creates walking art and art combining nature and science, Fred works with digital art and technology, and Geert is a poet and sound/performance artist. Together they use art to find answers to both social and ecological problems.
The Art Of Connecton | Hof Ter Welle Beveren Belgium 25.01 > 02.02.2025.
A project with Fred Adam with Geert Vermeire & Stefaan van Biesen. Location: chapel and congregation room. International artist project about connection in a more humane world - with educational section for school children from 10 years old.
January 2025: their collaborative project No One Forgotten - The Art of Connection to Beveren. This project is about how artists from different countries can collaborate with local communities to heal landscapes using walking art, artist residencies and digital art. No One Forgotten builds on Stefaan and Geert's previous projects, Made of Walking and the Milena Principle, which connected artists from across Europe.
The core of their work is hospitality and collectivity. Their art emphasizes connections in a more-than-human world. The exhibition and group activities offer young people and adults the chance to experience new forms of art that merge technology, performance and nature.
Fred Adam working on his installation at the chapel of Hof ter Welle Beveren 2025.
The Walking Body (TWB) is an international meeting of walking artists. The 2025 meeting is dedicated to ‘communities of change’, communities that are plural, on the move, and sensitive to issues of the social and natural ecology of the environment in which we live.
Photo by Rosario Forjaz
Tell me your name is a performative walk and act, in which you will give a name to plants that grow in the wild (on the street between tiles, along walls or along the road), according to your own poetic approach. You do not take into account their scientific name that has already been assigned to them before. The idea is to approach them intuitively and give them a name that identifies or defines their character or beauty. Or what this plant means to you in relation to yourself or to other participants.
'Weed' is something that only lives in our heads, only plants that we do not cultivate in our garden or parks, we call 'weed'. This is an exercise to define yourself as human being in our society by using these plants as a metaphor by associating you with them and determining their place in the natural world in relation to our society.
TWB explores local communities as dynamic entities in constant transformation, connecting people, territories and ecologies through movement, the art of walking and the relationship between the city and the landscape of Guimarães TWB will take place from 26th of March to 12th of April in Guimarães, in Bairro C, with the meeting point at the Garagem Avenida Gallery/School of Architecture, Art and Design.
TWB includes a week of walkshops, a round table with the invited artists and an exhibition (26 March to 17 April). This event is free of charge. Anyone interested in art and the act of walking can take part in these actions.
The walkshops take place throughout the week from 7th to 12th of April, on walks around the area with a focus on Bairro C, and the meeting point will be the Avenida EAAD Garage Gallery (Av. Dom Afonso Henriques 250). TWB has 7 artists taking part in the workshops: Geert Vermeire (BE), Jordi Lafon (ES), Miguel B Duarte (PT), Montsita Rierola (ES), Natacha Antão (PT), Stefaan Van Biesen (BE) and Rosa Soares (PT).
