During a walkshop in the mountainous borderland of Vrontero, I asked participants to travel through a landscape shaped by displacement, resistance, and resilience. I used the walk to explore how engaging with a place through the senses can confront histories of loss and belonging.
The walk took place at five stations. Each station focused on a local plant, a mourning song or folk lament, and a brief performative text. Participants moved from the chapel to the war memorial, the abandoned nursery, the old information centre, and finally to the monument of the partisan women. The body became a tool for sensing and navigating intertwined histories.
The walkshop was grounded in transdisciplinary research on the entanglement of nature, memory, and national narratives in the Prespa Lakes region. Drawing on oral histories, ethnobotanical knowledge, and local folklore, I examined how landscapes embody complex cultural traumas while offering potential avenues for healing.
Each station staged a subtle ritual: touching elements from the natural and built environment, listening to fragments of women’s laments, and tracing the outline of the ruins. These gestures activated the site as a living archive, where ecological and affective memory surfaced through embodied attention. By placing slow, intimate acts in public spaces, I aimed to disrupt singular historical meanings and invite multiple perspectives. I argue that moving together through space fosters a brief community, allowing participants to connect with the land’s silenced stories. In "Walking as a Feast for the Senses," I demonstrate that walking is not a neutral act of observation, but a deliberate, intentional act of care and resistance to the erasures in the national imagination.
