Despite his 30-odd years, Wim Tellier remains a child at heart. He has the long hair, wide eyes, casual mien and, above all, the restless energy of adolescence. This impression is reinforced when I ask him about his favourite non-artistic pastime: go-kart racing. “The track demands your full attention,” he explains between onomatopoeic “vroom”s and high-octane hand gestures. “It’s all so fast and so loud. You don’t have time to think about anything else.”

This is, after all, a man who has a lot on his mind. The Flemish photographer has taken a precious lunch hour off to chat in a cafe in Bornem. He should be neck-deep in the final preparations for We Drift, an ambitious project which has consumed the past three years of his life and is set for its big reveal on 2 June.

Originally conceived as a massive, floating exhibition of giant photos anchored in the harbour, the project has evolved into a tide-swept procession of 1,000 rafts, each bearing a huge photographic collage. “All big art exhibitions are static,” Tellier says. “I realised I wanted to make one that was dynamic, one that moved with the rhythm of nature.” So the working title Bay of Plenty gave way to We Drift, and it was decided that the tidal river on which we drift would be the mighty Scheldt.

50 countries, one river

The logistics of such an exhibition, which is one day only on 2 June, are staggering. To close off a stretch of river for even a brief period requires the permission of 19 local and regional authorities. Tellier and his crew have to construct, warehouse and launch their own rafts. The manufacture of the massive photographic tableaux depends on a production chain that involves several specialised providers in Flanders and the Netherlands.

The bold concept runs the risk of eclipsing the photographs themselves, which are artistic and technical marvels in their own right. Each unique 16 squaremetre collage is comprised of two elements: a portrait and a landscape patchwork. The portraits were shot in über-high resolution in an Antwerp studio after a casting call brought a thousand subjects of all ages, shapes and colours (pictured).

The landscapes required a bit of travel. Tellier and his two-person crew spent three years trotting the globe to shoot the requisite landscapes. All told, a full 50 countries on six continents are represented. It was, Tellier says, an adventure. Conditions were far from ideal on the ground. The gang scouted locations off the beaten path and slept rough in tents.

Nor was the shooting itself a walk in the park. Tellier rigged his camera to a kite – yes, a kite – which he would fly over the site. “The problem,” he says, “is that there’s no way to tell how the place looks from the air until you put the kite up. A landscape that looks boring from the ground might be beautiful from some altitude.”

Wounded planet

Then there were the vagaries of the weather. Most photographers just need good light; Tellier also required wind enough to launch his kite-borne camera. In Cambodia, where his luck bottomed out, it took four days to snap a single viable photo.

Such an unusual, overhead perspective can easily be mistaken by the eye for an abstract design. Tellier soon realised he needed a visual anchor, so, like Where’s Waldo, each composition integrates a giant red sticking plaster. The project’s hallmark is at once a unifying metaphor for a wounded planet and, at 7 x 7 metres, an optical yardstick with which the viewer can register the scale of a given landscape.

Tellier is reluctant to disclose what he considers his most successful shoot, but he does single out the American coastal region devastated by Hurricane Sandy last autumn as the most poignant stop. He was first of all surprised to be granted permission to shoot anything in the aftermath of the superstorm.

On the ground, he was overwhelmed by the ferocity of nature and the inadequacy of human plans. “You have a nice beach house. Your future is planned in detail. You feel secure,” he says. “But life is unpredictable.”

Vulnerability and unpredictability are recurring themes in Tellier’s work. His own life as a successful artist was anything but planned. A native of rural Flanders, he grew up with a passion for travel and nature but no particular interest in photography. He preferred climbing and, as a teenager, worked as a guide in the Himalayas. It was during this stint that he met his future wife and his future father-in-law, who happened to be a teacher of photography.

After learning the trade and dipping his toe in the Antwerp gallery scene, Tellier decided the best way to make a name for himself in the Flemish metropolis was to think big. His first major work set the tone. We Wish was a 600 square-metre photographic installation starring Tellier’s newborn son Yenno. After premiering on Antwerp’s Grote Markt in 2006, it was shown in several major European cities and finally on the iconic Santa Monica Pier in California. Then it was carved up and sold in limited-edition pieces.

His next project, in 2009, took the concept a step further. Protect 7-7 featured not one but six enormous portrait blow-ups, each representing a continent and its people. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, the installation was exhibited in sub-zero temperatures outside Belgium’s Antarctic outpost, the Princess Elisabeth Station. (It was here, incidentally, that Tellier came up with the kite method that would serve him so well in the making of We Drift.)

Three years of work

These high-profile works have established Tellier as one of the rising stars of Antwerp’s art scene, and naturally everyone wants to know how he plans to top his previous act. So keen is the public curiosity that a camera crew from TV station Canvas has been following Tellier since he began work on We Drift. The resulting documentary, also titled We Drift, tells the story of the project from conception to realisation, with a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears in between.

It’s a long story, spanning three years, and one that hasn’t truly reached its climax until Tellier and his crew launch the exhibition on the river on 2 June. The documentary will be shown in two parts, on 18 and 25 June.

Although Tellier built his reputation on the massive scale of his installations (and, at a reported 1,000,000 square metres, We Drift is his biggest yet), the artist insists that the most important aspect of this latest work is not its size. “Yes, it’s large,” he says, “but what is truly unique about We Drift is its presentation on the Scheldt. It’s the first major exhibition driven entirely by the forces of nature.”

The We Drift installation will set sail from Sint-Annastrand on the morning of 2 June and should proceed inland with the tide before being towed back to the starting point. Plans could be affected by weather, so visitors are advised to check Wim Tellier’s website for details on the morning

www.wimtellier.com

Date night

The sky is the limit for Antwerp artist Wim Tellier, especially if his ambitious We Drift project comes off without a hitch. The photographer is grateful for his success but acknowledges how difficult it is to balance such demanding work and a fulfilling home life. Tellier has to travel a great deal but is a husband and father of two (baby Yenno, star of his first installation, is now six and has a little brother, Rio).

To maintain a sense of normalcy when his work puts him in a distant wilderness, Tellier kept a nightly date with his wife and kids. “I had a satellite phone at all times,” he explains, “and wherever I went, whatever I was doing, I phoned home every day at 19.00 sharp.”

The experience has changed everything, it seems, even Tellier’s idea of rest and relaxation. “When you’re away from home so much, you learn not to waste any time when you’re back,” he says. “There are no lazy afternoons. We’re always doing something fun together.”

Tellier should be able to enjoy some quality time with the family this summer. Then it’s back to work. After the big debut on the Scheldt, he’s hoping to show We Drift on London’s Thames and then perhaps, if the art gods answer his prayers, on the Hudson in New York.

But that’s not all: Tellier is already planning his next project. Although he declined to go into details, he did mention that the follow-up to We Drift would continue his exploration of the forces of nature. It’ll probably be really big, too.