Walk&Talk celebrates 12 years at Casa Independente

June 2011, São Miguel island. Everything is calm, serene, too. A month later, Walk&Talk (WT) brought the possibility of confrontation to the island, through intervention in public space. Street art as a shake, a provocation. The first 18 murals emerged, then things evolved, along with the population, expanding across the territory and the ways of looking at it. São Miguel was never the same again.

This year, 12 editions later, the contemporary arts festival becomes a biennial. And what changes does this bring? “In 2011, walk&talk emerged as the first gesture of a generation looking for space, wanting to walk and not afraid to talk. Since then, it has looked at the island as a point of intersection, building alternative affective, cultural and territorial geographies, which imagine other centralities and relationships in the world.” After having found a house for the association (the vacancy), the work to come it requires “time, attention and care, leading to “other rhythms and ways of doing things”. “Hence the decision to transform walk&talk into a biennial model”, the first edition of which will take place in 2025, explains the organization on the official page.

‘A Alegria do Sexo Alegre’, performance, funk and trap

In this idea of ​​looking with time and “beyond the archipelago”, the party arrives on May 10th in Lisbon, more precisely at Casa Independente, and brings with it a reading, music and other presentations. The day begins at 9:30 pm with the sharing of the last years of the festival, through the presentation of the catalog Walk&Talk 2011-2022: what you don’t know deserves to be discovered, where almost 1000 images and some stories tell what has happened so far. The start includes a reading by artists João Pedro Vale & Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, based on the text The Joy of Joyful Sexan essay-journey through “the memories, landscapes and people of the island of São Miguel, through projects and through various editions of a festival that ‘wanted to question, think, interpret and reinterpret the idiosyncratic structure of Azorean culture'”.

At 22.00 Gustavo Cirático shows his graphic creation, ISTMO, together with the performer Sara Zita Correia.

Immediately afterwards, and until 02:00, DJ sets from Atelineiras and SoundPreta bring pop, funk, trap, grime and drill to the dance floor, among other contemporary sounds. And dance.

Largo do Intendente Pina Manique, 45. 10 May, 21.30. Free entry.

+ The Lounge has adorned Lisbon’s nightlife for 25 years. This Saturday, we celebrate