Julia Rüegger

Strolling and flâneuring as a critical aesthetic practice 

The German term ‘flanieren’ (strolling) is classically understood as the practice of aimless wandering that emerged in Western metropolises in the mid-19th century and conceives of the act of walking in urban space as a state of intensified perception and immersion. This practice has always been reflected artistically, for example in Walter Benjamin's ‘Passagenwerk’ or Franz Hessel's ‘Ein Flaneur in Berlin’, whereby the artistic reflection in turn had an effect on the practice. While the prototype of the flâneur shaped in this way is in most cases a middle-class, white, able-bodied man whose flâneur activity also reflects his privileges - a constellation that continues into the ‘psychogeography’ of the 1960s - for some time now, forms of flâneuring have been explored without boundaries, form for which ‘flâneuring’ is perhaps no longer an accurate term. They focus both on other ways of wandering and on actors who have traditionally been excluded from strolling. The focus is often on flâneurs who are marginalised for various reasons and for whom the appearance and movement in public space presents itself as challenging or existentially threatening.

In my dissertation project, I follow this critical reconfiguration and consider flâneuring as a decidedly counter-hegemonic practice that takes place at the interface of aesthetic and socio-political processes, where new connections are formed, everyday habits are suspended and spheres of action are explored that resist the prevailing ‘division of the sensual’ are explored (Rancière). 

But the actualisation of flâneuring is also gaining new urgency due to the transformation of cities and the increasing privatisation of public space, which is putting the democratic culture of the everyday life and the ‘right to the city for all’ (Lefebvre) under threat. In addition, Google Maps and digital connectivity are changing the conditions of strolling, which has always included the possibility of losing oneself. All these changed parameters make it necessary to explore contemporary flâneuring under new premises. In doing so, I focus in particular on a form of strolling which is no longer a luxury good for the few, but a democratising, commoning practice.

Education

Further Acitivites

Artistic Grants

Theoretical Publications

“F wie Flanieren. Vom ziellosen Gehen als widerständige Praxis”, on the Art of Intervention Blog,
Link to the article

„Flanieren als demokratische Praxis für ein umfassendes Recht auf Stadt“ in: Vom Fluss des Wassers zum Fluss des Geldes. Eine widerständige Kartografie der Pharmaindustrie, ed. by Multiwatch and Unofficial Hiking Society AG, Zürich: edition 8 (2025).

 „Männlichkeiten als Lebensweise in Geschichte und Gegenwart“, Conference Summary on H-Soz-Kult, Link to the article

„Utopische Institutionen. Milo Raus künstlerische Entwürfe für eine demokratischere Zukunft“, in: Frankfurter Hefte, Issue 07/08, Berlin/Bonn 2022. Link to the article

Literary Publications (Monographs only)  

Und überlaut die Zikaden, with Valerie K. Meyer, edition mosaik, Salzburg 2025

einsamkeit ist eine ortsbezeichnung, Schiler & Mücke, Berlin/Tübingen 2023

2026: „Schlendern, Straucheln, Rückwärts gehen. Ein Blick auf minoritäre Schritte und Praktiken des Gehens“, lecture at the conference „Weak Aesthetic Practices“ at the University of Hildesheim. 

2026: „Why Loiter? Why Linger? Why Not Going Home? Reflections on the Pleasure of Being in Public Space“ Vortrag am Symposion „Denken in Bewegung / Thinking in Motion“, organisiert von ILEA (Institute for Land and Environmental Art) und Studio Erde, Zürich Oerlikon.

2025: „Between Hyper-Visibility and Invisibility. Approaching the Gaze of the Female Flâneur“, lecture at the conference „Spectacle and Spectatorship: Interrogating the Female Gaze" as part of the Fifth Annual International Women in the Arts Conference, University of Arkansas Rome Center

2025: „Spaziergangswissenschaft trifft Literatur. Lucius und Annemarie Burchkhardt mit Robert Walser im Gespräch“, panel discussion at the Labyrinth bookshop in Basel, organised by Lokal für Raumbegehung

2024: „Wohnen heißt Zusammenwohnen. Kohabitation als demokratische Praxis“, Lecture in the panel Democracy as a Way of Life at the XI. Conference for Practical Philosophy, University of Passau

2021: „Präsentische Demokratie vs. Démocratie à venir“, Zoom-Lecture at the first annual  conference of the German Pragmatism Network on the topic of Living Democracy? – The Future of Democracy