"Life in a big city" is an idea of 12 Belgian and 12 Russian creative youngsters (20 - 28 years old) who decided after a brainstorm what their urgent worries, questions, challenges in life nowadays are, and that it is time to push te pause-button in the city of St. Petersburg. "Life in a big city" contains plenty of associations: the speed and transience of our current lives, the presence of a growing yet shrinking world, the diversity of cultures, the mixture of on the one hand remnants of life as it was ages ago and on the other hand symbols of our present way of living and, finally, the promises of what will become. We can resume we are living in a liquid world. Everything becomes fluid, transformable and people come and go, without taking a pause. With this project the whole group of Belgian and Russian youngsters wants to push the pause-button and let the local population and the youngsters interact in a smooth way and invite them to join the participants in escaping from the passage of time. By taking this moment the participants want to perceive, experience, express and visualize the way of living in a big city. The city, where people live near to each other , yet along each other, sometimes without any interaction happening. Through this project we want to realize an intercultural artistic exchange. During this exchange, themes related to cosmopolitanism and social dialogue will be addressed. In this way we want to raise awareness and broaden perspectives regarding youngsters their social and societal responsibilities. The differences and similarities in cultures, city life experiences and political contexts will be used to feed the activities. All this will be done departing from the common language of art. This includes workshops, discussions, trips, dips into the culture of St. Petersburg and its environment. The activities will be carried out in consultation and interaction with Russia and Belgium. In a non-formal and experimental way both groups will participate in an enthusiastic and motivating way. In the end, we would like to create a huge event in an open space in St. Petersburg, where all forces come up and whereby interaction with the public will be the main driver of the event. It will not be an event where the youngsters only will show what they learned, thought and felt during the project. It is also the intention that with the art and installations they can get in touch with the citizens, or by discussing their thoughts and art or by doing a workshop together. Participating in this process will give the participants and the locals the chance to have some reflection and gain insight in what “Living in a metropolis” means today. This project will have a great impact on the youngsters. They will be supported and guided to think, behave and act creatively and to produce their own work regarding the theme. At the same time they will develop their critical thinking, their creativity, artistic and multimedia skills, their interpersonal skills, such as team work, communication, cooperation with others and their individual and active social citizenship, while stimulating the intercultural learning and respect for the others. The impact for the local community will be indirectly effective. In order to increase the impact on the local level, we are planning to organise an event in St. Petersburg. There will be a presentation of the Erasmus + program, as well in Russia as in Oostende and we expect that local youth will be interested to participate in simular future projects in Europe. The Belgian participants will also show their photographic and movie-art works and their installations in Belgium during TAZ, a big theatre festival in Oostende and as well on the internet (websites of the organisations) After the exchange, the organisations and the participants will continue working on the theme of the exchange, using the experience gained and the materials made during the exchange: posters, pictures and videos to organise presentations and workshops in their youth centers and schools. That will also be promoted on the webpages of the organisations. Besides the theme of the exchange, the whole project and its activities has for aim to promote the Erasmus+ programme and the possibilities it offers for young people in terms of intercultural learning and understanding, mobility, developing social skills, and growing a conscience of European citizenship.