May 9th is Europe Day, which commemorates the Schuman Declaration and the beginning of European cooperation that gave rise to the EU.

Taking advantage of this anniversary and the current context, in which authoritarian, identity-based, and ultranationalist tendencies, both internal and external, threaten the union of Europe, we need more voices like that of Theodor KallifatidesAn author who, in writing about himself, also writes about the history of Europe, trying to look to the past to reflect on those wounds that remain unhealed and that can help us understand who we are today.

Theodor KallifatidesThe author, of Greek origin and a naturalized Swedish citizen—but whom we could easily summarize as European—is a staunch defender of a committed, just, transnational, diverse, and egalitarian European culture, founded on peace and the defense of human rights. Through retrospection and questioning of the past, as he has done, for example, in his recent war trilogy comprised of the novels Peasants and lords, The plow and the sword y A cruel peace (2024, Galaxia Gutenberg), delves into the identity and roots of his people, his family, and migrations… Through the inner history of his people, in which the mythological tradition of Ancient Greece is also present, we come to know the deepest recesses of the human soul with all its cruelty and all its love. In the midst of a storm of threats and rearmament, economic upheavals, wars, televised bombings of civilian populations, and the utter loss of empathy and humanity, Theodor Kallifatides anchors himself in what is truly important in the face of fear: what leads us to lose respect for the lives of others?

For the past two decades, el Círculo de Bellas Artes acts as Casa Europa In Madrid, a pioneering space for debate and cultural exchange with a European perspective. Our purpose is to be a meeting point for civil society that transcends the traditional limits of academic and political discourse. Casa Europa It is a commitment to dialogue, transnational culture, diversity, freedom of expression, and the ongoing construction of what it means to be European in the 21st century. As part of this strategy, el Círculo part of the European Alliance of Academies, Cultural Action Europe and New European Bauhaus.

In this encounter, Theodor Kallifatides He will deliver a plea for peace and speak with the journalist from SPCBruno Pardo.

Image credits: Miguel Balbuena