In a world facing urgent environmental and social challenges, traditional activism often competes for attention with screens, headlines, and daily routines. But there is another form of engagement that takes place in the body, in public space, and in dialogue with real people: performance art. 

The PATS (Performance Art Takes the Street) project builds on this potential, empowering young artists and youth workers to use performance as a way to spark conversation, raise awareness, and strengthen community bonds across five European countries.

Rather than stopping at expression, PATS uses performance as a platform for public engagement, blending creativity, experimentation, and action to put ideas into motion, not just into words.

Inspiration from Participatory Theatre Practices

One historical example that resonates with PATS’ creative and participatory approach is Theatre of the Oppressed, developed by Brazilian theatre creator Augusto Boal in the 1960s. Boal’s methods envisioned theatre not as something spectators passively observe, but as a space of active participation and reflection. In Theatre of the Oppressed, people become “spect-actors”, participants who can step into performances, explore alternatives, and rehearse social responses before applying them in real life.

Boal’s techniques, such as Forum Theatre, where audience members influence the course of the play, and Invisible Theatre, where performances unfold in public places disguised as everyday life, demonstrate how theatrical methods can open dialogues around injustice, power, and community issues.

For example, in peer engagement settings, Forum Theatre invites participants to pause a scene depicting a social issue and try out different responses, an embodied rehearsal of real-world problem-solving that encourages critical thinking and collective reflection.

While PATS is its own initiative, performance art in public, whether scripted or improvised,  shares with these participatory theatre practices a belief in:

• Active engagement: performances that invite audiences to reflect, react, and connect rather than simply observe;
• Public dialogue: art activated in community spaces, prompting conversation about social and environmental realities;
• Experiential learning: embodied, creative processes that build confidence, reflection, and agency among young creators and their audiences alike.

Through an online educational platform, a structured Art Performance Course, a Learning, Teaching, and Training Activity (LTTA), 25 public performances and exhibitions, and a documentary series, PATS supports young people to experiment with how performance can become a meaningful tool for advocacy and engagement in their own contexts.

In doing so, PATS shows how performance art, whether through structured theatre pieces, street performances, or participatory actions, can act as a bridge between artistic expression and civic life, encouraging young people to step into public spaces with purpose, creativity, and voice.

REFERENCES 

Theatre of the Oppressed – Encyclopaedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/art/Theatre-of-the-Oppressed

Cohen-Cruz, J., & Schutzman, M. (Eds.). (1994). Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism. London: Routledge.