Lecture: Jonas Staal

Join UNSW Art & Design Research Forum and UNSW Galleries for a lecture by internationally renowned Dutch artist, Jonas Staal.

This lecture coincides with the release of Staal's new book Propaganda Art in the 21st Century (The MIT Press, 2019). The artist's visit to UNSW Art & Design is developed in partnership with Curatorial Practice at Monash University and the Melbourne Law School.

Drinks with the artist from 530pm with the lecture commencing at 6pm.

Lecture

In this lecture Staal further examines forms of 'emancipatory propaganda art' that do not aim at manipulating masses into Us versus Them dichotomies, but instead 'propagate' the complexities and ambiguities involved in building new planetary communities. These creative practices range from choreographies in popular mass movements to the artists at the frontline of the Rojava revolution in North-Syria.

Book

For a long time, propaganda was considered a term only used in dictatorships. But with the advent of terms such as 'fake news', 'alternative facts' and the so-called 'post-truth' era, it becomes clear that in supposed democratic regimes the term remains applicable as well. In his book Propaganda Art in the 21st Century (The MIT Press, 2019), artist Jonas Staal traces the role of art in modern and contemporary democracy, from the use of modernist art by the CIA to propagate against the doctrine of socialist realism in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, to the work of filmmaker and Trump ideologue Steve Bannon in establishing alt-right biospheres in the present.

Biography

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) and the campaign New Unions (2016–ongoing). With BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, he cofounded the New World Academy (2013–16), with Florian Malzacher he is currently directing the utopian training camp Training for the Future (2018–ongoing) and with Laure Prouvost he is co-administrator of the Obscure Union (2017-ongoing). Staal’s work has been shown, among others, at the 7th Berlin Biennale, the 31st São Paulo Biennale, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. 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 Federation of North Syria, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2018-19). His most recent book is Propaganda Art in the 21st Century (MIT Press, 2019). Staal completed his PhD research on propaganda art at the PhDArts program of Leiden University, and he is a member of The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Image: Jonas Staal, 'Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective, Study' 2018 (detail). Remco van Bladel and Jonas Staal. Produced by Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam.