Opening | Het Aktiverend Volksteater

David Maroto

On 5 June at 7.00 pm, you are warmly invited to the opening of the exhibition Het Aktiverend Volksteater at the StadsGalerij Breda.

The exhibition Het Aktiverend Volksteater is the result of David Maroto’s research into our shared Spanish and Dutch history, which he links to two events from the recent past: the death of the Spanish dictator Franco in 1975 and the performance of the play ‘Franco the Second’ by Breda’s ‘activating people’s theatre’ in 1976. Events that cannot be viewed in isolation from the Spanish Civil War and his own family history, through which David explores his research via memory and oral transmission.

In his work, he examines the extrajudicial execution of his grandfather Manuel, which took place during the Spanish Civil War that arose as a result of General Franco’s coup d’état in 1936. David reconstructs this history of violence, and how it is embodied in a personal experience and his family history – which remains suppressed by a silence from which memory must be restored.

In his research, David draws a connection with his own family history, which he explores through memory and oral tradition in the form of a performance. He will perform this during the opening; thereafter, performer Jessica van Deursen will be present on Sundays 14 and 21 June and 5 July, recounting this history through objects such as clay busts, murals and drawings.

The exhibition can be viewed from 6 June to 5 July 2026.

This project has been made possible thanks to contributions from the Municipality of Breda, the Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish Embassy, the Mondriaan Fund and De Link.

Het Aktiverend Volksteater — The Spanish artist David Maroto explores the relationship between his family history and the Spanish Civil War by contrasting it with the play ‘Franco de tweede’explores the relationship between his family history and the Spanish Civil War by contrasting it with the play ‘aktiverend volksteater’.