The year 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ). As the organisation has been in contact and often in collaboration with a number of artists exploring and reflecting on restorative justice, the concept of the REstART Festival emerged as a pertinent form to celebrate this anniversary and facilitate the debate of innovative justice approaches. However, 2020 has also proven to be an extraordinary year with the unfolding crisis around the Covid-19 pandemic and its multiple consequences in our societies. As restorative justice focuses on the reparation of harm, the REstART Festival aims to offer a platform to account the harm our societies are experiencing in this crisis and to explore ways of reparation, through the key values of restorative justice: human dignity, solidarity, truth and responsibility to encourage a dialogue over a “restart” of our communities and the way we live in the world.

The poster of the Festival is based on a window image in Leuven (Belgium) by Lisa Van Der Auwera. During the lockdown in Spring 2020, many residents of Leuven expressed themselves through drawing and writing messages on their windows.