Raimar Stange in conversation with Jonas Staal
As part of the exhibition
Demokratie heute – Probleme der Repräsentation

12 May 2021
Live-Stream
In English

Raimar Stange talks with Jonas Staal about his work on art, assembly and organization through projects such as “New World Summit” and “Training for the Future”, exploring the role of artistic imagination in furthering emancipatory politics.

Around the world, many existing democracies are in a crisis: freedoms and options for political participation are being restricted or their use is declining. The exhibition Demokratie heute – Probleme der Repräsentation (Democracy Today – Problems of Representation) curated by Raimar Stange takes the vulnerability of the basic democratic order as a starting point and illuminates problem areas such as burgeoning right-wing populism around the world, the mediatisation of politics, and new forms of political participation.

Jonas Staal (* 1981 in Zwolle, lives in Rotterdam and Athens) is the founder of the artistic and political organisation “New World Summit” (since 2012) and the campaign “New Unions” (since 2016). With BAK, basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht he co-founded the “New World Academy” (2013 – 2016). With Florian Malzacher he currently runs the utopian training camp “Training for the Future” (since 2018), and with Laure Prouvost he is co-administrator of “Obscure Union” (since 2017). 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 most recent book is Propaganda Art in the 21st Century (The MIT Press, 2019).

Raimar Stange (* 1960 in Hanover, lives and works in Berlin) is an independent curator and art publicist who writes for various art magazines including Flash Art (Milan), Kunst-Bulletin (Zurich), Springerin (Vienna), Camera Austria (Graz), and taz (Berlin). His most recent publications include 2050 – Nature Morte: Kunst zum Klimawandel (Berlin, 2020) and Global National: Kunst zum Rechtspopulismus (Cologne, 2019). Stange has curated numerous exhibitions at venues including L 40 Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Berlin, 2020), Haus am Lützowplatz, (Berlin, 2019), and Kunst Haus Wien (Vienna, 2015, 2016).