The Fragmented Microcosm of the Flaneur

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The Fragmented Microcosm of the Flaneur

We had an online chat with Fabian Saul and Grashina Gabelmann, Editors-in-Chief of Flaneur Magazine, a publication that straddles between magazine and and art object.

---

Beoplay: 
Hello fellas, how are you?

Fabian: 
Good, how are you?

Grashina: 
hello!

Beoplay: 
We are in Barcelona at the moment, so the climate is a
little more comfortable compared to the Berlin we left behind!

Grashina: 
Good for you haha
Still grey as always here

Beoplay: 
Right, let's get down to business – we want to hear more about Flaneur Magazine, the ideas, its inspiration and so on.

Fabian: 
Flaneur depicts one street per issue and is a collaborative project. We spend two months on the street, meeting and listening to people, and then we piece together the magazine fragment by fragment. The whole idea is that although a street suggests something linear and logical, it is in fact a fragmented microcosm with many contradicting, sometimes hidden layers – and what looks like neighbouring objects, stories, people, can actually only be loosely related. It's a lot about the missing links, something very literary and not journalistic.

View fullsize

Beoplay:
In some way calling it a magazine in a traditional sense can seem off – is it because of the lack of a better word?

Grashina:
What makes Flaneur a magazine is that is comes out serially, but in a strict sense of the word a magazine is just a vessel that can be filled with whatever you like. So it definitely is a magazine, but the word magazine has just come to be understood as paper filled with editorials and photographs by writers and journalists. In that sense Flaneur is removed from what you just called the "traditional sense"

Beoplay:
Usually when the term "flaneur" is brought up the poetry of Baudelaire and the writings of Walter Benjamin come to mind – do you piggyback on those implied connections, or what is your take on the Flaneur as a term?

Fabian:
There's some aspects of the term that interested them and also interest us, i.e. the flaneur being on the fine line between a melancholic who's concerned with the things that are at the edge of vanishing and being avant-garde and able to project into the future at the same time. But these connotations don't dominate or drive our work. We are interested in flaneuring as a timeless cultural technique and not so much in the flaneur as a character (as in the Baudelaire's and Benjamin's work).

View fullsize

Beoplay: 
Describe the technique of flaneuring – what is it?

Fabian: 
Synchronising your  introspection with your surroundings – it's a very subjective approach. It's tiny details which in that context sometime trigger incredible stories.
Maybe Grashina has an example ...

Grashina:
Yes I do...

A good example is the story of Yves the barber in Issue 3. we met Yves through another contributor and started hanging out in his barber shop nearly every day. Being there we were confronted with topics of reflection (the mirror in the barber shop, the relationship between the barber and customer...) and wanted to make a short film about this. But after more and more time passed we realised that we didn’t need a script or actors but that Yves the barber was the character, and that the stories he would tell us and the objects placed around his shop were a perfect example of this interior/exterior contrast that we noticed straight away.

This became a short movie that you can see online and also as a printed story in the mag.

Beoplay:
That is an amazing development of a story! 
Speaking of film and supplementary material, the magazine is entirely analogue in its format. It's good, old-fashioned print on carefully selected paper stock with an attention to detail through design. Why not go digital if you are already doing films and audio?

Fabian:
The films and audio work as an extension of the magazine, but it is very essential for us to produce an object – an object that you can go back to. We take time to produce each issue and the reader takes time to consume it. None of the content has an expiration date. Like with a good book, you can return to the stories over the years and find hidden details within the mag you haven't seen the first time you read it.

Beoplay:
So, in fact, you are somewhere between a book and a magazine?

Grashina:
Yes, and a collaborative art platform.

View fullsize

Beoplay:
Each issue also has a very unique design – do you localise the design as well?

Fabian:
The design is always done by Studio Y-U-K-I-K-O here in Berlin and they – Johannes and Michelle (co-founders of Studio Y-U-K-I-K-O) – have been part of the core team from day one. They come to the street for about a week or two and meet the contributors, see and smell and interact with the place, do research about the vibe, colours, fonts and hear the stories we've collected while we're producing the issue. So their design doesn't follow any formulated template, but is a reaction to the street as well.

Beoplay:
In some way that approach resembles the one of improvisational music – feeling the room, the crowd, the mood, the environment. Do either of you have a musical background or is music and sound playing a part in the creation of an issue?

Fabian:
I'm actually a composer of film music and more, and some of our contributors have been musicians – so yes, there are strong ties to musical concepts and the idea that the sound of the place is as important as the look and the stories of it. We had a soundtrack composed for an issue on Kantstraße by Malakoff Kowalski and recorded a sound archive of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II with Annika Larsson. In Leipzig I composed a few musical pieces as homages to characters that we met. We even produced a tape for the magazine in Montréal.

Beoplay:
We have been speaking to Elisabeth Skou, a PhD-Scholar from University of Aarhus, who is doing research on the rise of ultra-local publishing. Do you see yourselves as a part of that movement or tendency? And why do you think that we see a sudden increase of these sort of publications along with the self-publishing trend?

Fabian:
Well, I feel that a lot happening in the ultra-local trend is a backlash against a globalised world, and that sometimes comes with a lot of hidden reactionary ideas. But with Flaneur I feel like the ultra-local is definitely part of a globalised world, and actually is only possible because of it – looking at the ultra-local as a way of understanding what's happening on the other side of the world. That said, I’m sure that the old cultural technique of flaneuring resonates with the sped-up life that began in the 20th century. Deceleration is a key element of flaneuring but then again, we consider it a timeless strategy. I wouldn’t reduce flaneuring to deceleration and I wouldn’t see the ultra-local as in opposition to a globalised world, but as a key element of globalisation: understanding that the struggles and the basic human conditions people experience are very similar no matter where they live. As I said earlier, the Flaneur connects these experiences.

Beoplay:
We will definitely be looking forward to coming issues of Flaneur Magazine. Where is the next issue set?

Grashina:
Moscow!

Fabian:
Yeah!
Thanks for the questions – this was good!

Grashina:
thank you!

Beoplay
Haha – Thank you very much for your time. Keep in touch, guys!

The Fragmented Microcosm of the Flaneur

---

The Fragmented Microcosm of the Flaneur

We had an online chat with Fabian Saul and Grashina Gabelmann, Editors-in-Chief of Flaneur Magazine, a publication that straddles between magazine and and art object.

---

Beoplay: 
Hello fellas, how are you?

Fabian: 
Good, how are you?

Grashina: 
hello!

Beoplay: 
We are in Barcelona at the moment, so the climate is a
little more comfortable compared to the Berlin we left behind!

Grashina: 
Good for you haha
Still grey as always here

Beoplay: 
Right, let's get down to business – we want to hear more about Flaneur Magazine, the ideas, its inspiration and so on.

Fabian: 
Flaneur depicts one street per issue and is a collaborative project. We spend two months on the street, meeting and listening to people, and then we piece together the magazine fragment by fragment. The whole idea is that although a street suggests something linear and logical, it is in fact a fragmented microcosm with many contradicting, sometimes hidden layers – and what looks like neighbouring objects, stories, people, can actually only be loosely related. It's a lot about the missing links, something very literary and not journalistic.

View fullsize

Beoplay:
In some way calling it a magazine in a traditional sense can seem off – is it because of the lack of a better word?

Grashina:
What makes Flaneur a magazine is that is comes out serially, but in a strict sense of the word a magazine is just a vessel that can be filled with whatever you like. So it definitely is a magazine, but the word magazine has just come to be understood as paper filled with editorials and photographs by writers and journalists. In that sense Flaneur is removed from what you just called the "traditional sense"

Beoplay:
Usually when the term "flaneur" is brought up the poetry of Baudelaire and the writings of Walter Benjamin come to mind – do you piggyback on those implied connections, or what is your take on the Flaneur as a term?

Fabian:
There's some aspects of the term that interested them and also interest us, i.e. the flaneur being on the fine line between a melancholic who's concerned with the things that are at the edge of vanishing and being avant-garde and able to project into the future at the same time. But these connotations don't dominate or drive our work. We are interested in flaneuring as a timeless cultural technique and not so much in the flaneur as a character (as in the Baudelaire's and Benjamin's work).

View fullsize

Beoplay: 
Describe the technique of flaneuring – what is it?

Fabian: 
Synchronising your  introspection with your surroundings – it's a very subjective approach. It's tiny details which in that context sometime trigger incredible stories.
Maybe Grashina has an example ...

Grashina:
Yes I do...

A good example is the story of Yves the barber in Issue 3. we met Yves through another contributor and started hanging out in his barber shop nearly every day. Being there we were confronted with topics of reflection (the mirror in the barber shop, the relationship between the barber and customer...) and wanted to make a short film about this. But after more and more time passed we realised that we didn’t need a script or actors but that Yves the barber was the character, and that the stories he would tell us and the objects placed around his shop were a perfect example of this interior/exterior contrast that we noticed straight away.

This became a short movie that you can see online and also as a printed story in the mag.

Beoplay:
That is an amazing development of a story! 
Speaking of film and supplementary material, the magazine is entirely analogue in its format. It's good, old-fashioned print on carefully selected paper stock with an attention to detail through design. Why not go digital if you are already doing films and audio?

Fabian:
The films and audio work as an extension of the magazine, but it is very essential for us to produce an object – an object that you can go back to. We take time to produce each issue and the reader takes time to consume it. None of the content has an expiration date. Like with a good book, you can return to the stories over the years and find hidden details within the mag you haven't seen the first time you read it.

Beoplay:
So, in fact, you are somewhere between a book and a magazine?

Grashina:
Yes, and a collaborative art platform.

View fullsize

Beoplay:
Each issue also has a very unique design – do you localise the design as well?

Fabian:
The design is always done by Studio Y-U-K-I-K-O here in Berlin and they – Johannes and Michelle (co-founders of Studio Y-U-K-I-K-O) – have been part of the core team from day one. They come to the street for about a week or two and meet the contributors, see and smell and interact with the place, do research about the vibe, colours, fonts and hear the stories we've collected while we're producing the issue. So their design doesn't follow any formulated template, but is a reaction to the street as well.

Beoplay:
In some way that approach resembles the one of improvisational music – feeling the room, the crowd, the mood, the environment. Do either of you have a musical background or is music and sound playing a part in the creation of an issue?

Fabian:
I'm actually a composer of film music and more, and some of our contributors have been musicians – so yes, there are strong ties to musical concepts and the idea that the sound of the place is as important as the look and the stories of it. We had a soundtrack composed for an issue on Kantstraße by Malakoff Kowalski and recorded a sound archive of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II with Annika Larsson. In Leipzig I composed a few musical pieces as homages to characters that we met. We even produced a tape for the magazine in Montréal.

Beoplay:
We have been speaking to Elisabeth Skou, a PhD-Scholar from University of Aarhus, who is doing research on the rise of ultra-local publishing. Do you see yourselves as a part of that movement or tendency? And why do you think that we see a sudden increase of these sort of publications along with the self-publishing trend?

Fabian:
Well, I feel that a lot happening in the ultra-local trend is a backlash against a globalised world, and that sometimes comes with a lot of hidden reactionary ideas. But with Flaneur I feel like the ultra-local is definitely part of a globalised world, and actually is only possible because of it – looking at the ultra-local as a way of understanding what's happening on the other side of the world. That said, I’m sure that the old cultural technique of flaneuring resonates with the sped-up life that began in the 20th century. Deceleration is a key element of flaneuring but then again, we consider it a timeless strategy. I wouldn’t reduce flaneuring to deceleration and I wouldn’t see the ultra-local as in opposition to a globalised world, but as a key element of globalisation: understanding that the struggles and the basic human conditions people experience are very similar no matter where they live. As I said earlier, the Flaneur connects these experiences.

Beoplay:
We will definitely be looking forward to coming issues of Flaneur Magazine. Where is the next issue set?

Grashina:
Moscow!

Fabian:
Yeah!
Thanks for the questions – this was good!

Grashina:
thank you!

Beoplay
Haha – Thank you very much for your time. Keep in touch, guys!