Jonas Staal

Jonas Staal founded the artistic and political organization New World Summit to create a space that encourages us to alter our perception of “democratic” governments across the globe. Since 2012, Staal has convened groups including the Kurdish Women’s Movement, the Basque Independence Movement, and the National Liberation Movement of Azawad to discuss designated-terrorist lists and other methods of exclusion that systematically ban bodies from political order. This year’s fourth New World Summit, entitled “Stateless State,” was staged in Brussels and facilitated 25 representatives of unacknowledged states worldwide. In addition to his work on the New World Summit, Staal is currently working on his PhD on art and propaganda in the 21st century. His most recent books include Nosso Lar Brasília (2014), which explores the relationship between Spiritualism and Modernism in Brazilian architecture, and The Art of Creating a State (with Moussa Ag Assarid, 2014), on the role of art and culture in the foundation of the new state of Azawad (northern Mali).