Viable Unknowns: A Theatre Project for Imagining Fairer Cities

Cities are changing rapidly, sometimes in ways that feel exciting, and sometimes in ways that leave many behind Viable Unknowns is a European project that brings together theatre-makers, researchers, and community organizations to pause and ask: What could fairer, greener cities look like? And how can we imagine those futures together?

Through performances, workshops, and collaborative research, the project explores new forms of collective life: ones rooted in sustainability, care, and social justice. It’s not about finding quick fixes, but about experimenting with tools that help people think, feel, and act differently in their urban environments.

The people involved in the project come from several countries and bring different backgrounds. The theatre groups are La Xixa Teatre from Barcelona, gruppe tag from Leipzig, VoiceLab from Wrocław (part of the Instytut Grotowskiego), and Cantieri Meticci from Bologna. They’re working together with two research groups from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ) and the Research in Sociology of Religion (ISOR). Together, these groups are exploring how artistic practice and academic research can inform one another — and how both can support change in cities.

Why “Viable Unknowns”?

The term “viable unknowns” comes from Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. He used it to describe the possibilities that don’t yet exist, but could, if people are willing to imagine and act together. It’s a way of thinking about change that isn’t just based on what’s already known or proven, but on what’s possible when people come together to explore the future.

This idea is central to the project. The goal isn’t to define one clear vision of a sustainable city, but to stay open to different perspectives and build something new through conversation, art, and collaboration.

First Steps: Online Meetings and Sharing Practices

The first few months of the project were mainly about getting to know each other. Since the groups are spread across different countries, most of this happened online. Each month, one group hosted a session where they introduced their working methods and led a small creative exercise. These meetings were a chance to build trust and get a feel for how each organization approaches theatre and social engagement.

In parallel, the research teams from Barcelona organized sessions on key urban topics. They introduced themes like green gentrification, the role of religion in urban change, and the social effects of tourism. These inputs helped provide a common language around sustainability and justice, and gave the theatre groups ideas for how to approach these topics creatively.

gruppe tag hosted a session focused on observation in public space. Participants were asked to watch the street, to move through it consciously, and to notice things that often go unnoticed. These small observations turned into performance fragments that were later shared with the group. It was a simple method, but one that helped sharpen attention and open up new ways of seeing everyday life. Here are a few examples:

Some of the workshops were more sensory and experiential. VoiceLab, for example, focused on sound — asking participants to pay close attention to their auditory environment and explore how listening can be a political and emotional act. 

Cantieri Meticci led a writing workshop about trees, inviting people to reflect on their personal and political significance. People ended up sharing stories, memories, and symbols from their hometowns, using trees as a way to talk about identity, change, and belonging.

La Xixa brought in elements of forum theatre — even in an online format. They proposed a fictional scenario in which neighbors received funding to make their house more sustainable. The conversation quickly became more real, touching on questions of privilege, power, and who benefits from “green” policies: 

Meeting in Person: Three Days in Munich

In December, the group met in Munich for the first in-person training. It was a three-day workshop hosted by gruppe tag. The goal was to deepen the relationships between partners, try out each other’s theatre methods, and work creatively on a shared topic.

After a few warm-up exercises to overcome the usual language barriers, the group collectively chose the theme of “flood” as a metaphor for the training. It felt broad enough to explore emotionally, politically, and physically — and it resonated with many of the environmental and social issues discussed in earlier sessions.

Each group then led a workshop. Participants were divided so that everyone had a chance to try something new.

In one session, gruppe tag explored the role of artificial intelligence in theatre. The workshop started with a discussion around ethics, privacy, and the environmental cost of AI. Then participants created scenes using AI-generated text, asking: what happens when a chatbot decides who gets rescued first after a catastrophe?

La Xixa’s workshop went deeper into forum theatre techniques. The group worked with real-life scenarios involving oppression, and tried to embody both the conflict and the potential for change. The method proved to be a powerful way to talk about social dynamics in a concrete and emotional way.

VoiceLab led a sound-based workshop on the theme of water. Participants created a collective soundscape — using their voices and objects — and turned it into a kind of walking performance. The focus was on how sound connects us to place, memory, and emotion.

Cantieri Meticci’s workshop was based on physical theatre. Participants used natural materials — branches, cloth, water — to build symbolic representations of catastrophe and survival. Some focused on the collective aspect of rebuilding after a disaster; others explored more intimate stories of loss or resilience.

Each session offered something different. Some focused on structure, others on improvisation. Some were abstract, others very grounded. What stood out was how quickly the group adapted to each method and supported one another, even when communication wasn’t always easy.

A First Step Toward Co-Mentoring

Another important part of the Munich meeting was the launch of the co-mentoring process between researchers and theatre-makers. It began with a short “speed-dating” activity, where people talked one-on-one to find potential matches. After that, each researcher joined a theatre group to start thinking about how they could collaborate more closely.

The idea is not to turn researchers into artists, or artists into researchers, but to see what happens when both sides work together from the start. Some of the early discussions focused on how to combine scientific methods with artistic ones — and how to document that process in a way that respects both.

The session ended with rough plans for the next steps. The collaborations will continue over the coming months, both online and in person, and will feed into future stages of the project.

Looking Ahead

The Munich meeting was an important moment for the project. After months of talking online, it gave everyone a chance to work physically together, test ideas, and build a shared vocabulary. There were challenges, of course — scheduling, translation, and the usual complications of international collaboration — but the overall feeling was one of energy and connection.

What started as an abstract idea — combining theatre, research, and activism — now feels more concrete. People are starting to speak each other’s language, not perfectly, but well enough to create something together.

There’s still a lot to come: more workshops, local activities, and co-creative processes. But the foundation has been laid. Viable Unknowns is no longer just a title — it’s starting to feel like a real space where experimentation, dialogue, and imagination can happen.