Presentation in “elevator pitch” style: Flâneur is an artistic and exchange project based on photography. It’s large scale, multidisciplinary and multi-layered network of 20 partners that has been wandering around the public spaces of 11 European countries during the last 2 years.

After countless hours of work, trips, talks and photos, we are finally taking a moment to stop and think, to realise what it has all meant to us. So, instead of my usual approach, I chose to share a few of my personal views, my own experiences and emotions about the project. Flâneur stirred up a lot in me, an array of emotions, mostly pleasant, positive, good vibrations… It has been a long road since we first started to dream about it. And now we are on the break of the final exhibition and project catalogue.

Almost unbelieveable.

What an adventure…

All stories have to start somewhere, Flâneur’s started in the stunning vineyards of the Douro, in the north of Portugal. We were finishing a 3-year project called Entre Margens (literally “between the river banks”), with exhibitions in several cities of the region, bringing artwork to the middle of the streets and squares. The feedback, both from the artists and the public, was enriching and unforgettable. And it also became the catalyst for the idea: why not to do this across Europe?

The first step was building a network, finding likeminded people to work with us. Extensive contacts were made with curators and producers of photography events, artists and others. Informal meetings also played a part in this partnership - some of our strongest relationships were forged over wine tastings or even on dance floors.

With the network on the move, Skype quickly became our meeting room, those on-screen talks were key to discuss ideas and to expand the project. Skype became so symbolic, that we even chose it to film the interviews for the final documentary.

On and offline, we spent hours and hours planning, pondering and assessing the different needs and challenges of our task.

I can’t stress how important this was to the success of the project.

Flâneur started as a dream, shared by our local team and partners across Europe. But to turn it into a reality, we had to adjust to new working methods and face unexpected trials. First, such a large scaled project needed proper funding. As you can imagine, it wasn’t an easy step. We searched, knocked on doors and filled dozens of applications. After a failed attempt, finally we were granted the Creative Europe and the UNESCO support. We were ecstatic and almost couldn’t believe that we had won, not one, but both grants. We immediately started working. There was a critical sense of urgency - we had committed to a programme and an event schedule, even if it was not perfectly attuned with the European funding bureaucracy.

Since the beginning, we had a clear idea of the kind of design and lay-out our exhibitions should have. Flâneur’s artwork would be displayed on a modular structure of light boxes, ensuring that everyone could walk around and over them.

It had to be adaptable to different settings, fast and easy to assemble, movable and also retain an aesthetic identity. The ingenious solution was created in a small, family-based locksmith’s workshop in the outskirts of Lisbon. Working closely with them, we managed to create this light, unobtrusive and versatile structure. Seeing it in place now, nobody would guess that it actually weighs about 11 tonnes… Moving all that material around Europe was another challenge, and required skills that seemed more related to a rock band tour than to a photography exhibition. In each city, different logistics and regulations, we were always learning… But we never let that us hold back - during these two years, Flâneur’s installing teams travelled more than 21.491 Km.