In 2025 Spain commemorates the 50th anniversary of its return to democracy. It is a unique journey in which many questions remain unresolved. The traces of the tensions originating during the Spanish Civil War still linger like a ghost within the social and political fabric. Similarly, Belgium’s history during the Second World War, shaped by the dilemma between collaboration and resistance, continues to cast its shadow over political life, especially in Flanders. Both episodes, the Spanish Civil War and the German occupation of Belgium, created deep fractures that have yet to fully heal. A kind of taboo, a silence passed down from generation to generation as a “family secret,” continues to hinder true reconciliation.

On the occasion of the presentation of the play 1936, a discussion will take place featuring Andrés Lima, playwright and director of 1936; and Jeroen Olyslaegers, author of the best-selling novel Wil. They will engage in conversation with Gerardo Salinas, playwright, survivor of the Argentine dictatorship, and currently city dramaturg on the KVS artistic team.