To Make a World: Art and Propaganda in the 21st Century
Departing from an artistic practice that is invested in the relation between art, democracy and propaganda, Jonas Staal's research project explores the ways art has been made subservient to dominant interests of power. Through visual and theoretical means Staal aims to articulate the ways in which art can engage in constructing new understandings of power.
Jonas Staal (1981, NL) studied monumental art in Enschede (NL) and Boston (US). Staal’s work focuses on the relationship between art, democracy and propaganda. He is founder of the artistic and political organization New World Summit that develops alternative parliaments for stateless political movements.
Staal’s work includes public interventions, exhibitions, theater performances, and publications. His work was exhibited at the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012) and the 31st São Paulo Biennale (2014). The first overview of the New World Summit was shown in Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana (2015) and the first overview of his school, the New World Academy in Centraal Museum Utrecht NL (2015).
His publications Post-propaganda (Fonds BKVB, 2009) and Power?... To Which People?! (Jap Sam Books, 2010) provide the theoretical basis for his work. He recently edited the publication Stateless Democracy (BAK, 2015) on the cultural revolution in West-Kurdistan.
Staal is currently involved in a collaboration with the autonomus government of West-Kurdistan in Syria to construct the first public parliament in the region.