Are We All Sisyphus?
Twenty-eight young people from Poland, Spain, Serbia and Bulgaria spend eight days on one question: what makes a life worth the trouble. They work on it with paper, walking, stones and conversation rather than theory. This is the text version; the other version is a room of pictures you move through.
The question
Young Europeans report the highest life satisfaction of any age group (7.2 out of 10 in the EU in 2024; Eurostat, ilc_pw01) and are also the loneliest (13% lonely most or all of the time; EU Loneliness Survey, JRC 2022) and the most exposed (26.3% of 18–24 year olds at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025; Eurostat). A person can rate their life seven out of ten and still not be able to say what it is for. Satisfaction is a judgement about conditions. Meaning is a judgement about worth.
The project does not treat depression or anxiety, does not screen for them, and does not claim that eight days resolve anything about a person's life. It does not teach Camus as correct; one page is read aloud on the sixth day and the room is invited to argue with him.
The script
Every society hands its young people a default picture of a good life by thirty. Because everyone shares it, it looks like reality rather than one arrangement among several. Four societies in one room turn it into one account among four: Będzin, where the interesting things happen elsewhere; Catral, where the question is whether staying is a choice or a defeat; Novi Sad, where a capable person is assumed to leave; Sofia, where that assumption sits beside a fast urban economy.
The week, 4–11 September 2027
- Day 1. Group rules written by the participants, including the right to step back. The wall of 28 sealed questions.
- Day 2. The inventory: one real week mapped hour by hour in four colours. A repetitive task done twice; its debrief separates pleasant, required and mattered.
- Day 3. Four posters of the expected life, built from 84 sentences collected at home and read back by strangers. One scene with three endings.
- Day 4. Self-expression: the two-column letter, masks, an unsigned box of true sentences. Nothing published without consent given afterwards.
- Day 5. The mountain: a full day on a marked route in the Gorce foothills, one stone each, two silences of twenty minutes, walking interviews with three questions, one sentence on the stone.
- Day 6. The two circles: what I control and what I do not. One page of Camus and the objections. The commitment card with a date four months out.
- Day 7. The field guide written by participants; the exhibition opened to residents of Rabka-Zdrój.
- Day 8. Sealed questions returned and answered. Local sessions planned and one rehearsed. Youthpass written in pairs.
Every day: two morning blocks, two afternoon blocks, protected free time, a reflection circle and reflection in national groups around three fixed questions. Methods are paper, index cards, walking, silence, forum theatre and one paint marker per person. No device, account or data allowance needed.
Who it is for
Twenty-eight participants aged 18 to 30, seven per country, one group leader per group, two facilitators. Twelve places are held for young people with fewer opportunities: no income or unstable work, small towns and rural municipalities, social isolation or no international experience. No English test, no prior knowledge, nothing paid by the participant. Two psychologists engaged by the host are on site throughout with a private room; they run no sessions. Applications open through each organisation at least four months before the activity: The Mindset Society (Będzin, Poland), Ayuntamiento de Catral (Spain), Sapere Aude Serbia (Novi Sad), The Focus Society (Sofia).
After
Three booster tasks at two weeks, one month and three months. Eight participant-led local sessions within four months, reaching roughly 100 to 160 people. A delayed questionnaire on the date written on each commitment card. A free, openly licensed field guide of fourteen exercises in English, Polish, Spanish, Serbian and Bulgarian, published on the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform. Each partner runs at least three exercises inside its regular work within a year.
Team and partners
Martyna Miśkiewicz (coordinator and facilitator, psychology background), Andrey Kostov (second facilitator, philosophy background), Paweł Miśkiewicz (contact person, logistics and wellbeing), Nadia Urysz (creative coordinator, all visual production). Partners: Ayuntamiento de Catral (Spain), Sapere Aude Serbia (Novi Sad), The Focus Society (Sofia). Applicant and host: The Mindset Society, Będzin, Poland, an informal group founded in September 2026. Project 1 February 2027 to 31 July 2028, submitted to the Polish National Agency, Round 2, October 2026. Nothing on this page is confirmed until the grant decision.
Pictures, all public domain via Wikimedia Commons: Titian, Sisyphus (Prado) · Antonio Zanchi, Sisyphus (Mauritshuis) · Giovanni Battista Langetti, Sisyphus (Detroit Institute of Arts) · Franz von Stuck, Sisyphus, 1920 · mezzotint and print of Sisyphus (Rijksmuseum) · Charles Grignion, Sisyphus, Ixion and Tantalus, 1790 (Wellcome Collection) · engraving after Abraham Bloemaert · Sisyphus and Tantalus, drawing (The Met) · Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (Kunsthalle Hamburg) · Friedrich John after Matthäus Loder, Sisyphus · Attic amphora, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich (photo Bibi Saint-Pol) · Meyers Konversations-Lexikon · The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil, 1899 · Roman de la Rose manuscript.
Co-funded by the European Union, subject to the grant decision. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the National Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.