Artist Jonas Staal has worked on the relationship between art, democracy and propaganda for the past twelve years. His early work researched the role of art in ultranationalist movements, amongst others in the form of a study into the architectural work of Freedom Party (PVV) MP Fleur Agema entitled Closed Architecture (2011).

Staal refers to his more recent work as projects in the form of organizations, such as the New World Summit (2012 – ongoing), with which he creates parliaments for stateless and blacklisted organizations, most recently in the form of a commission for a permanent parliament in the autonomous region of Rojava, northern Syria. In this lecture, Staal will discuss the role of art both in analyzing models of control society – closed worlds – and the necessity to imagine its radical alternatives – new worlds.

Jonas Staal (Zwolle, 1981) is a visual artist whose work includes interventions in public space, exhibitions, theater plays, publications and lectures. Recent overview exhibitions are Art of the Stateless State (Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, 2015), New World Academy (Centraal Museum Utrecht, 2015) and After Europe (State of Concept, Athens), and his work has further been exhibited in, amongst others, the 7th Berlin Biennial (2012), 31st São Paulo Biennale in São Paulo (2014) and the Oslo Architecture Triennial (2016).

Staal published several books, such as Closed Architecture (Onomatopee, 2011) and Nosso Lar, Brasília (Jap Sam Books, 2014), and his written works regularly appear in e- ux journal. The artist’s studio is based in Amsterdam, and further consists of producer Younes Bouadi and researcher Renée In der Maur. Staal is a researcher at the PhDArts programme at the University of Leiden, and a member of the national Academy of Arts.

^{Videos by Niels Schrader and Pascal Schilp}