Listening to the Past, Leading for the Future

In the coming months, Theatre of Remembrance will launch a new programme for our 2026 edition. The programme will be shaped by a conviction that memory is not only a matter of the past, it is also a tool for shaping our present and future.

At a time when Europe grapples with war on its borders, generational trauma, and a search for shared democratic values, the stories we choose to remember and how we choose to remember them, matter more than ever.

Inspired by this concept, on a gloriously sunny day at the end of September frequent ToR collaborator Hilde Harshagen captured images of our two models Arnout and Sophie on the Dam Square in Amsterdam. Arnout and Sophie held up plexiglass circles in alternating colours, poignantly stood in front of the national monument commemorating the victims of WW2. The plexiglass served as a versatile and multi-faceted material, reflecting nearby buildings while simultaneously encapsulating the rugged texture of the monument and even glimpses of the Latin inscription etched into the surface. Each photo is vivid and multi-layered, the past in constant conversation with the present.

The decision to conduct the photoshoot in a public space of such civic importance was deeply intentional. These campaign images encapsulate the idea that  “Remembering Shapes Tomorrow” is not just a statement; it is a call to reimagine remembrance as a civic act. Through performance, dialogue, and testimony, we bring personal memory into public space;  not to archive history, but to activate it. Every lived story, every echo of loss or resilience, becomes part of a larger effort to build societies that listen, understand, and act with care.

“Listening to the Past, Leading for the Future” underscores our belief that remembrance must also guide leadership. That’s why, in partnership with European cultural and civic institutions, we will convene a landmark conference in Belgium: a gathering of artists, policymakers, and researchers who recognize that remembrance has the power to shape legislation, education, and collective identity.

Throughout 2025 and 2026, our work will cross borders and generations. We will host performances and critical conversations that explore how individual memory contributes to societal resilience and how the arts can serve as a bridge for transformation, between past and policy.

This is not only about remembering war, it is about remembering what peace requires of us. Because remembering shapes tomorrow.

And those who listen to the past, are the ones who can lead us forward.

Credits:

Photographer: Hilde Harshagen

Models: Sophie Belhachmi and Arnout ter Haar