Let's join our fellow citizens on a journey through Lausanne. The Rimini Protokoll collective transforms the city into a utopian territory.

When Thomas More wrote his utopian vision of “the Highest State of the Republic and the New Island Utopia”, he had in mind a society without private property, composed of citizens with equal rights who would be ready to renounce individualism and selfishness for a common good. At a time when regionalism, nationalism and hate speech are becoming commonplace, it is useful to revisit the English humanist's book to think outside the box and envisage a society that does not yet exist. Rimini Protokoll proposes to explore emblematic models of human coexistence with an urban promenade performance.

What would an ideal world look like today, five hundred years after the publication of More's book? What types of utopias are imaginable in the 21st century, on what scales? What examples or foundations do we have? How can we make them visible and share them? After months of social distancing, these questions seem ever more urgent.

Utopolis Lausanne invites small groups of spectators to gather in cafés, shops, offices or flats in forty-eight locations in downtown Lausanne. Voices and sounds from a portable loudspeaker invite them to walk together through the city, towards emblematic buildings. On the way, the spectators meet other groups also equipped with loudspeakers, whose sounds combine to form an increasingly large and diverse sound space. During the walk, all the participants are invited to become the co-authors of the evening's ephemeral utopias. The codex of a new concept of society emerges, to be read and experienced together. Another society may be possible – even if only for a few utopian minutes...