During the first week of December in Belgium, the festival REstART - The Art of Justice, Dialogue and Repair , organised by the network European Forum for Restorative Justice, stands out as a powerful, participatory international event where art and restorative justice come together to inspire dialogue and transformation. Through striking artistic performances, thought-provoking exhibitions, interactive workshops and immersive experiences, the initiatives and encounters offered throughout the festival explore how creativity can open new pathways towards justice, understanding and repair, for individuals as well as for communities.
More than just a festival, REstART presents itself as a collective movement dedicated to systemic change, both within the justice system and across civil society as a whole. It brings together and mobilises artists, researchers, justice professionals, and a broad, diverse public for profound, intergenerational, and multilingual conversations. Together, these exchanges shed light on lived experiences of harm and on mechanisms of repair, while offering a nuanced understanding of alternative justice models and the historical trajectories that have shaped them over the years, in contexts of conflict as well as post-conflict.
The festival forms part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the European Forum for Restorative Justice and continues a strong movement spanning more than forty years in Europe. It gathers in Leuven, a city emblematic of restorative justice, an international community reflecting on today's challenges related to repair and dialogue. Capital of Flemish Brabant and a resolutely cosmopolitan city where more than 31.5% of inhabitants have a migrant background, Leuven also distinguished itself by winning the title of European Capital of Innovation in 2020. Among its major initiatives, the "Leuven Restorative City" project mobilises a vast network of social, cultural and educational actors, as well as local authorities, to promote, throughout the urban space, approaches to conflict resolution grounded in the values and practices of restorative justice.
According to representatives of the organising committee, "the connection between the arts and restorative justice creates a space for dialogue, storytelling and deep understanding. The arts make it possible to explore, in an accessible and sensitive way, complex issues such as crime, harm, trauma, conflict, responsibility, reparation and reconciliation."
The idea of restorative justice, nowadays structured around well-established values and practices, has proven particularly relevant in preventing and countering violent extremism, a major challenge in Belgium, where significant work has been carried out in recent years. Inspired by autochthonous traditions and further developed in North America in the 1970s, restorative justice invites us to rethink the criminal justice system by placing human relationships and lived experience at its centre. It is not about punishing in order to repair, but about involving victims, offenders and the broader community in a collective process aimed at easing tensions and restoring the social fabric.
The trauma caused by a violent act extends far beyond the individual, affecting entire families, communities, colleagues and neighbours. Whereas criminal justice focuses primarily on past events, restorative justice favours a forward-looking approach, attentive to the needs, emotions and personal narratives. It encourages co-created actions rooted in the conscious engagement of all participants, and it has proved particularly suitable for supporting victims of terrorism, as several speakers emphasised during the first events of the REstART festival.
In this context, theatre, visual arts, music and other forms of expression give voice to those affected, strengthen empathy and nurture conversations that are often difficult yet essential. Far from legal procedures alone, art reveals the profoundly human dimension of restorative justice and its genuine transformative potential.
By placing creativity at the heart of its approach, the festival presents works that retrace the journeys of individuals confronted with violence, conflict or crime, highlighting their encounter-sometimes fraught, yet indispensable-with "the other", whoever that may be. Reaching out to new audiences is one of the programme's guiding threads, helping to build conversational spaces that foster a deeper emotional and intellectual understanding of alternative justice models.
Immersive and participatory workshops challenge conventional frameworks, stimulate reflection and enable demanding, but necessary, cultural and human exchanges. Through these initiatives, the festival REstART promotes creative practices for transforming conflict, disseminates the latest developments in restorative justice to the broader public, and encourages tangible, lasting social change.
On 4 December 2025, the European Parliament - and in particular the office of MEP Hana Jalloul Muro - hosted the premiere of the theatre play La mirada del otro ("The Gaze of the Other"), presented by Proyecto 43-2, a theatre company dedicated to complex artistic inquiry, guided by a sensitive and open approach and exploring themes such as historical memory and structural violence. Co-founded by the Spanish actress and director Maria San Miguel, recently honoured with the prestigious El Ojo Critico 2025 Award from the Radio Nacional de Espana in the dans la categorie 'Theatre' - a distinction granted, according to the jury, "for a body of work marked by rigour and scenic research" - Proyecto 43-2 develops a form of writing deeply rooted in documentary theatre, where history and memory intertwine in a choral and layered dramaturgy.
The play presented in Brussels is part of the series Rescoldos de paz y violencia. Una trilogia sobre el Pais Vasco ("Embers of Peace and Violence: A Trilogy on the Basque Country"), which has already been staged in several public institutions, including the European Court of Human Rights, the Spanish Ministry of Justice, the ENPJJ - Ecole nationale de protection judiciaire de la jeunesse (National School for Youth Judicial Protection) in France, the French Ministry of Justice, and the Cultural Centre of Spain in Mexico.
With surtitles in French and English to ensure accessibility for a truly international audience, the piece depicts restorative justice encounters bringing together former members of the Basque armed separatist organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) and the families of victims of terrorist attacks. Over its six decades of activity, ETA - which officially declared its dissolution on 2 May 2018, fifty years after claiming its first victim - is considered responsible for more than 800 deaths. More broadly, across the Basque Country as a whole, actions carried out by organised extremist groups between 1960 and 2013 caused 1,004 victims of terrorism and violent radicalism, according to data compiled and made available by the Basque Government.
By retracing this dark period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula - and, more broadly, of Europe - the play unfolds an intimate and profoundly moving dialogue that probes responsibility, healing, and the human capacity for transformation after acts of violence or terrorism. With meticulous writing and perfectly controlled pacing, it represents the culmination of ten years of research, testimonies, and artistic creation, carried out with the support of the Restorative Justice Service of the Government of Navarre.
The play was also performed the following day at the House of Compassion, a symbolic venue located in the Church of Saint John the Baptist at the Beguinage, in the heart of Brussels' historic centre. Renamed "House of Compassion" six years ago, this seventeenth-century Baroque church is now a highly frequented interfaith and intergenerational centre run by volunteers, dedicated to hospitality, attentive listening and solidarity - particularly towards the most marginalised individuals and communities - and placing social justice and human dignity at the core of its mission.
Under the soaring vaults of this history-laden space, the emotion of witnessing the theatrical performance was palpable. The large audience, coming from many countries and involved in peace-building efforts at various levels or eager to deepen their understanding of restorative justice, followed the narrative with great attentiveness. The voices of the victim and the perpetrator of harm guided the audience through a reflection that was at once introspective and collective, inviting each person to consider their responsibility towards their own community and, more broadly, towards all societies confronted with similar forms of violence or with resonant histories.
Un extrait de l'avant-premire de la pice thetrale La mirada del otro ( Le regard de l'autre ), mise en scne le 4 decembre au Parlement europeen. Photo: Simon Balckley.
Parmi les artistes presents REstART, Adelina Trshani, activiste feministe et performeuse multidisciplinaire, presente une uvre mlant poesie, parole et engagement politique. Inspire par le croisement rare entre art et justice reparatrice, son travail invite le public envisager des espaces o d'anciens ennemis peuvent se rencontrer et dialoguer. Elle transmet ainsi l'espoir que de telles rencontres sont possibles et que la reconstruction aprs la destruction est non seulement imaginable, mais egalement realisable.
l'occasion de la Semaine europeenne de la justice reparatrice, l'exposition Trovarsi nella Traduzione (Found in Translation / Trouve dans la Traduction) est presentee dans le cadre du festival REstART. Selon Adelina Trshani, les mots peuvent blesser, diviser et dresser des murs, mais aussi devenir de puissants instruments de comprehension. L'objectif de cette exposition artistique et narrative est de transformer le prejuge en empathie et en reconciliation, travers les 12 mots de la methode Rondine. Nee de l'experience d'Adelina en tant qu'etudiante originaire du Kosovo la Cittadella della Pace Rondine, dans l'Italie centrale, l'exposition montre comment des mots autrefois utilises pour exclure peuvent se transformer en points de connexion travers des histoires et des photographies, au-del des barrires linguistiques et autres.
partir d'aujourd'hui et jusqu'au 9 decembre, le festival se poursuit Louvain, avec des performances et des ateliers immersifs. Parmi eux, Cittadella della Pace Rondine, organisation d'education alternative basee en Italie et dediee la reduction des conflits armes, presente l'initiative Dissonanze in Accordo sous la forme d'un spectacle-temoignage illustrant l'experience de Rondine et son message de paix. Quatre jeunes etudiant-e-s y partagent leur vecu dans la gestion des conflits: la rencontre avec l'ennemi-e, le depassement de la haine et des prejuges, la naissance d'un lien d'amitie et le retour la maison.
Depuis 1998, le programme Rondine offre des jeunes issus de pays en conflit ou post-conflit une immersion de deux ans, leur permettant de vivre et de travailler ensemble et de decouvrir ainsi l'humanite de l'ennemi-e au quotidien. Louvain, la performance qui sera presentee ce soir la bibliothque publique Tweebronnen / de Bib Leuven Tweebronnen combine musique, temoignages et recits de jeunes issus de l'Armenie, du Kosovo, du Mali et de la Serbie, montrant comment le dialogue et l'empathie peuvent transformer la peur et la haine en comprehension et en paix. La paix y est presentee comme une pratique exigeante et profondement humaine, grce chaque voix sur scne, qui incarne le choix de l'espoir plutot que de la resignation, et souligne combien l'engagement des jeunes est essentiel pour construire un avenir harmonieux au-del des conflits.
Aprs le riche programme de Bruxelles, qui a offert des opportunites de decouverte tant au niveau institutionnel que dans la societe civile, ainsi que dans des cadres plus informels, les propositions presentees Louvain jusqu'au mardi 9 decembre montrent que la creativite peut ouvrir des chemins inattendus vers la comprehension, l'engagement civique et la transformation sociale. travers chacune de ses propositions artistiques et culturelles, REstART met en lumire le pouvoir emotionnel et social de l'art pour sensibiliser aux processus de justice reparatrice et en faciliter la comprehension et la diffusion plus grande echelle. Les performances, ateliers creatifs et discussions sur l'application de la justice reparatrice dans des contextes varies montrent comment l'art peut devenir un outil concret pour transformer les conflits et developper des pratiques reparatrices innovantes. En donnant voix aux victimes, aux auteurs/trices et aux communautes affectees, le festival vise transformer la perception du public et offrir une comprehension concrte de la reparation et de la reconciliation.
En reunissant artistes internationaux, praticiens de la justice et le grand public, REstART demontre que la justice reparatrice n'est pas seulement une alternative juridique, mais une demarche profondement humaine, capable de changer des vies, de retablir des liens sociaux et de construire une culture de paix.
Informations pratiques:
Le programme complet est disponible ici: REstART 2025 Meet the Artists
The original article can be found here
Source: Pressenza
