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 converge 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 to justice, understanding, and repair for individuals and communities.
More than just a festival, REstART is a collective movement dedicated to systemic change within the justice system and across civil society. 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 mechanisms of repair, while offering a nuanced understanding of alternative justice models and the historical trajectories that have shaped them over time, in contexts of conflict and 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 2020 European Capital of Innovation (iCapital) title. 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.
Art in the Service of Justice and the Pursuit of Peace
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 to repair, but about involving victims, offenders, and the broader community in a collective process to ease tensions and restore 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 has proven 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.
Theatre and Dialogue on Political Violence: La mirada del otro
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 María San Miguel, recently honoured with the prestigious El Ojo Crítico 2025 Award from the Radio Nacional de España in the dans la catégorie ‘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 trilogía sobre el País 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 – École 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 Béguinage, 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, from many countries and engaged in peacebuilding 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.
An excerpt from the preview of the theatrical play « La mirada del otro » (“The Gaze of the Other”), staged on 4 December at the European Parliament. Photo: Simon Balckley.
A Conversation with Adelina Tërshani: Where Poetry Meets Politics and Hope
Among the artists contributing to the REstART festival programme, Adelina Tërshani, a feminist activist and multidisciplinary performer, presents a work that blends poetry, spoken word, and political engagement. Inspired by the powerful intersection of art and restorative justice, her work invites the audience to envision spaces where former enemies can meet and engage in dialogue. In doing so, she conveys the hope that such encounters are possible and that reconstruction after destruction is not only conceivable but also achievable.
On the occasion of European Restorative Justice Week, which took place from 16 to 22 November 2025, the exhibition « Trovarsi nella Traduzione » (« Found in Translation / Trouvé dans la Traduction ») was presented as part of the comprehensive festival programme. According to Adelina Tërshani, “words can wound, divide, and build walls, but they can also become powerful instruments of understanding”. The aim of her artistic and narrative exhibition is to transform prejudice into empathy and reconciliation through the 12 words of the Rondine method. Born from Adelina’s experience as a student from Kosovo at the Cittadella della Pace Rondine in central Italy, the exhibition demonstrates how words once used to exclude can be transformed into points of connection through stories and photographs, transcending linguistic and other barriers.
Dissonanze in Accordo: Dialogue, Music, and Conflict Transformation
From today until 9 December, the festival continues in Leuven with performances and immersive workshops. Among them, Cittadella della Pace Rondine, an alternative education organisation based in Italy dedicated to reducing armed conflict, presents the initiative «Dissonanze in Accordo » as a testimonial performance that illustrates Rondine’s experience and its message of peace. Four young students share the stages of their conflict-resolution experiences: encountering “the enemy,” overcoming hatred and prejudice, forming bonds of friendship, and returning home.
Since 1998, the Rondine programme has offered young people from conflict or post-conflict countries a two-year immersive experience, allowing them to live and work together and to discover the humanity of “the enemy” in everyday life. In Leuven, the performance presented this evening at the Tweebronnen City Library / de Bib Leuven Tweebronnen combines music, testimonials, and stories from young people from Armenia, Kosovo, Mali, and Serbia, showing how dialogue and empathy can transform fear and hatred into understanding and peace. Peace is presented as a demanding and profoundly human practice, brought to life through each voice on stage, embodying the choice of hope over resignation and emphasising the essential role of youth engagement in building a harmonious future beyond conflict.
Art as a Driver of Dialogue, Repair, and Social Change
Following the rich programme in Brussels, which offered opportunities for discovery at the institutional level, within civil society, and in more informal settings, the events in Leuven until Tuesday, 9 December, demonstrate further how creativity can open unexpected pathways toward understanding, civic engagement, and social transformation. Through each of its artistic and cultural offerings, REstART highlights the emotional and social power of art to raise awareness of restorative justice processes and to facilitate their broader understanding and dissemination. Performances, creative workshops, and discussions on the application of restorative justice across diverse contexts demonstrate how art can serve as a tangible tool for transforming conflicts and developing innovative restorative practices. By giving voice to victims, offenders, and affected communities, the festival initiatives will aim to ignite a shift in public perception and foster a concrete understanding of repair and reconciliation.
By bringing together international artists, justice practitioners, and the general public, REstART demonstrates that restorative justice is not merely a legal alternative but a profoundly human approach capable of changing lives, restoring social bonds, and building a culture of peace.
Practical Information:
- La mirada del otro – 5 December, 7:00 PM, House of Compassion, Brussels
- Dissonanze in Accordo – 6 December, 7:30 PM, Tweebronnen City Library / de Bib Leuven Tweebronnen, Leuven
- Found in Translation – 7 November–5 December, Brussels / 6–9 December, Leuven
The whole programme is available here: REstART 2025 • Meet the Artists
