Walk&Talk Biennial
25. Sep ̶ 12. Nov, 2025
São Miguel, Azores │ Azores
7. Mar
06:29
Black Smokers is a new creation within The Mountain Body series, Helle Siljeholm’s ongoing art and research project exploring mountains and geological formations as entangled more-than-human bodies across geological time and space. Inspired by the community of life that surrounds the hydrothermal vents and seamounts of the Azores the work unfolds as a sensory- based exploration in two movements: during the Opening Weekend, a guided immersion at Ponta da Galera invites participants to float and explore the sea with small driftwood sculptures gathered from across the archipelago; throughout the Biennial, the piece re-emerges at the Centro Cultural da Caloura as a self-guided performance, offering a floating-on-land perspective that lingers between body, geology, and the deep- sea.
Commissioned by and for Walk&Talk Biennial
Supported by Perform Europe, Oslo National Academy for the Arts artistic research program, Erasmus+ for higher education.
Residency: January 2025
Concept and creation: Helle Siljeholm.
Curator: Lisa Gilardino.
Walk&Talk Biennial curator: Claire Shea
Production team: Keresztes Zsombi, Joaó Amado and Rúben Monfort
Research consultancy: Nuno Pereira
Input floating exercises: Per Roar Thorsnes, Jenny Krog, Laura Lihua Nilsen, Iris Engeness
Audio recording and mixing : Azorean Radio station
project manager Perform Europe: Martina Smadelli Bonardi
Walk&Talk Biennial is an experimental and participatory project that takes place on the island of São Miguel, Azores. It exists in dialogue with the territory and the involvement of local and migrant communities around the knowledge generated in the expanded field of the arts, intersecting visual arts, performance, music, architecture, and design. Geologically straddling the North American, Eurasian, and African plates, this volcanic archipelago, through centuries of ecological imperialism, has transformed and multiplied well beyond its endemic vegetation to become a cornucopia of species that trace a history of global trade and corresponding forms of capitalism as they intersected with these isles.