[Work In Progress] is a European photography project compiling Polaroids of citizens we met

all over Europe and whom we asked to give their vision of active citizenship. Up until now,

400 citizens from more than 50 nationalities were photographed in more than 10 European

cities. A collection of 300 pictures is to be found online [polaroidproject.eu] and soon in

various places across Europe.

“This project was done on the spur of the moment, I had a Polaroid somewhere in a cupboard and

told myself it could be cool to take photographs of citizens and to give them the opportunity to tell us

a little about what they think of about citizenship, using both their bodies and their words, in the frame

of the European Year of Citizens”, says Jenna, the project’s founder.

Behind this project, there are three young Europeans involved in the European Year of Citizens’

Alliance (EYCA), a project aiming at promoting an active European citizenship. During a Festival held

in Brussels in May 2013, EYCA was looking for alternative ways of reaching out to citizens and

having them asking themselves what role they play in society.

“On the first day of the festival, it was raining (not surprising since we were in Brussels!) and our

Polaroids were all damp. And actually the pictures turned out great! At midday, we had none left and

had to go over to a friend to fetch some more… but it strenghtened our idea (…) that art and

photography or any alternatives actionscan bring people to talk about Europe differently, making it

sexy (or not!)”, says Vladimir from EYCA.

“In fact, we got caught at our own game… The citizens were the ones building the project with us,

and not the other way round. Their ideas, their messages and their creativity made us want to go

even further”, adds Jenna.

From a “one shot action”, we quickly moved to a more ambitious project: taking the Polaroid on a tour

of Europe for a whole year. Snapshots of reality, coincidences, the Polaroid “got the picture”: the

linguistic and cultural diversity of the continent.

The Polaroid as a political object…

… yes! Imagine, a mere Polaroid can open to discussions, questions, inspire ideas and launch a

debate on the pros and cons of a common European project.

“Active citizenship” fundamentally brings us back to our vision of our role in society. Behind what can

be initially seen as an abstract notion or an arid concept, actually lies something very personal that

tells a lot of our link to others.

A “Work in progress” as only conclusion

“Our work doesn’t pretend to give an exact definition of what active citizenship is, nor to

show tendencies. We only want to engage in discussion and bring people to think over their

role in society”, explains Anne-Charlotte, EYCA coordinator in 2013.

After having photographed over 400 people in more than 10 European cities and collected

not less than 300 polaroids – and as many views on citizenship; drawing conclusions and

deciding on tendencies clearly seemed delusional.

This project doesn’t even pretend – or try – to define active citizenship, since it seems to us

that, just like democracy, active citizenship is in constant evolution, a permanent “work in

progress”. That is the only conclusion we could draw, precisely because it is not one. So

what did we get out of this adventure? A mix of pride (that of having got caught by our own

game and surprised by citizens’ creative participation) and of will to see this dynamics and

this discussion continue (by keeping the website alive, collecting new pictures and seeing

them exposed all around the place…). By the way, if you have an old Polaroid, contact us!

On webmaster@polaroidproject.eu or on Twitter to @polaroidised !

L’ALLIANCE POUR L’ANNEE EUROPEENNE DES CITOYENS - EYCA

The European Year of Citizens Alliance [ey2013-alliance.eu] has gathered a network of

civil society organisations representing more than 5000 organisations around Europe to

promote active citizenship in the frame of the European Year of Citizens 2013

[http://europa.eu/citizens-2013/]. Although the main goal of the Alliance was to draft

recommendations to reinforce European citizenship (EYCA recommendations here:

[http://ey2013-alliance.eu/]), EYCA had also the will to engage with citizens around Europe

in a more casual and alternative way using art.

Here you can find out how the Alliance is using photography to talk about Europe and

citizenship: [www.polaroidproject.eu].

@Polaroidised

www.polaroidproject.eu