Walking Artist Gerhard Kowald

Born in Graz, Austria
A major focus of Kowald’s photographic work is the critical assessment of structural change in urban peripheries and rural regions.
Other projects deal with people of different origins in their living and working environments and revolve around the question of the extent to which social and economic changes influence the lives of individuals.
Gerhard Kowald participated in WAP23 he returned to Björkö in 2025 to preview his upcoming book on walking in the archipelago.
Gerhard Kowald formalized his walking via WAP23, previously he walk plenty but never considered that walking could be part of his art practice until he was encouraged to join the program, due to his methodology.
1975-80 Studied painting and art education at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Teaching assignment for media didactics at the Mozarteum University of Art, Salzburg, 1996-2005, Teacher of art, crafts and media 1980-2022, Participation in several workshops at Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg, and in the MasterClass at Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna
Lives and works as a freelance photographer in Salzburg, Austria
https://www.gerhardkowald.com

Walking With Locals

Kowald asked local residents to take him on their favorite walks and tell him about their experiences. The work was created in the fall of 2023 as part of WAP23. His firs encounter with walking as art form and his second stay at BKN. In “Walking with Locals” personal stories and cultural history are brought forward as well as proposed walks to take. The walk creates an intimate setting for retrieving the material Kowald later turned in to manuscript for his essay film in 2023. Sequences: Walk to an Estonian Settlement., Viking Walk, Walking Childhood Memories, Jungle Walk, Stoic Walk, Walking Family History

The film was part of WAP ArtWalk (QR code based) installed per sequence in various points on Björkö. Published online 2025, first screening Dec 3 2023 Björkö – Salzburg as part of an artist talk.

Other walking works

Book
“Open Doors – Encounters on Björkö – Arholma,” publishing pending Expected in 2026.

Exhibition
“Encounters on Björkö“

The photo series was taken in October 2022 during a 4-week artist residency at Björkö Konstnod (BKN, curator Anna Viola Hallberg) on the Swedish island of Björkö-Arholma in the archipelago northeast of Stockholm. During the summer months, the island is bustling with tourists, but outside the season it seems sleepy and relatively few people stay there permanently. Meeting these people and learning stories from their lives was the goal of my photographic research.
So I was able to gain exciting insights into very different life stories and was gifted with a lot of hospitality and open-heartedness.
Galerie extrazimmer, Robinigstraße 2A, 5020 Salzburg, Austria, Juni/Juli 2022.

Research Catalogue
WAP23 >>>