Jonas Staal

Jonas Staal is a visual artist whose work deals with the relation between art, propaganda, and democracy. He is the founder of the artistic and political organization “New World Summit” (2012–ongoing). Together with Florian Malzacher he co-directs the training camp “Training for the Future” (2018–ongoing), and together with human rights lawyer Jan Fermon he initiated the collective action lawsuit “Collectivize Facebook” (2020–ongoing). With writer and lawyer Radha D’Souza he founded the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (2021–ongoing) and with Laure Prouvost he is co-administrator of the “Obscure Union.”

His exhibition projects include “Art of the Stateless State” (Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, 2015), “After Europe” (State of Concept, Athens, 2016), “The Scottish-European Parliament” (CCA, Glasgow, 2018), and “Museum as Parliament” (with the Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2018–ongoing). His projects have been exhibited widely at venues such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, M_HKA in Antwerp, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Nam June Paik Art Center in Seoul, as well as the 7th Berlin Biennale, the 31st São Paulo Biennale, and the 12th Taipei Biennale.

His Publications include “Nosso Lar, Brasília” (Jap Sam Books, 2014), “Stateless Democracy” (co-edited by Dilar Dirik and Renée In der Maur, BAK, 2015), “Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective” (Het Nieuwe Instituut, 2018), and “Propaganda Art in the 21st Century” (The MIT Press, 2019). Staal completed his PhD research on propaganda art at the PhDArts program of Leiden University, the Netherlands.