Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective
19 April 2018 19:30 - 21:00
Opening of the exhibition Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective, in which propaganda researcher and artist Jonas Staal presents a new chapter of his contemporary propaganda research through the retrospective of the films and cultural and political work of Stephen K. Bannon. During the opening Jonas Staal and exhibition curator Marina Otero Verzier (Het Nieuwe Instituut) will engage in a public discussion on alt-right and ultranationalist propaganda art with Lauren Alexander (design collective Foundland) and NIDA politician Nourdin el Ouali. The event will be moderated by journalist and writer Chris Keulemans.
Stephen K. (Steve) Bannon is best known as campaign manager and later senior White House advisor of US President Donald Trump, as well as former editor-in-chief of Breitbart News. Less well known is Bannon's work as a filmmaker, producing nine documentary film-pamphlets between 2004 and 2016. From In The Face of Evil (2004) to his most recent film Torchbearer (2016), Bannon sketches a grim profile of a world on the brink of disaster, beset by economic crisis, secular hedonism and Islamist fundamentalism. Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective analyzes and deconstructs the mechanisms of contemporary propaganda art and raises the question of how to create counter-narratives in the form of an "emancipatory propaganda art".
Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective
On Thursday April 19, Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective will officially open during Thursday Night Live! Researcher and propaganda artist Jonas Staal presents a new chapter of his contemporary research through the retrospective of the films and cultural and political work of Steve Bannon in Het Nieuwe Instituut. The exhibition project is curated by Marina Otero Verzier and will be on show from April 20 until September 23, 2018. With this exhibition project, Staal demonstrates how Bannon's work can be read as a crucial example of the major impact of propaganda art on contemporary democratic societies. This is an impact that is not exclusive to the United States, but equally manifests itself in nationalist movements in The Netherlands and throughout Europe.
Jonas Staal
Jonas Staal (1981) is an artist and founder of the artistic and political organization New World Summit (2012-ongoing) and the campaign New Unions (2016-ongoing). Staal's work includes interventions in public space, exhibitions, theatre plays, publications and lectures, focusing on the relationship between art, democracy and propaganda. Recent projects and solo exhibitions include Museum as a Parliament (Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, 2018), Art of the Stateless State (Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, 2015), New World Academy (Centraal Museum, Utrecht, 2015) and After Europe (State of Concept, Athens, 2016). His projects have been exhibited widely, among others at the 7th Berlin Biennial (2012), the 31st São Paulo Biennale (2014), and the Oslo Architecture Triennial (2016). Recent books by Staal include Nosso Lar, Brasília (Jap Sam Books, 2014) and Stateless Democracy (BAK, 2015). In 2018 Staal completed his PhD research Propaganda Art from the 20th to the 21st Century as part of the PhDArts-Promoveren in de Kunsten programme at the University of Leiden.
Foundland Collective
Foundland Collective was formed in 2009 by South African Lauren Alexander and Syrian Ghalia Elsrakbi and is today based between Amsterdam and Cairo. The platform enables the group to explore shared research desires through art, design, writing, education and multidisciplinary collaboration. Foundland Collective continually experiment with different modes of working and have shifted roles from being artists, designers, editors, film directors and project organizers to educational facilitators and lecturers. Throughout this development they have critically reflected upon what it means to produce politically engaged, de-colonial storytelling from their position as non-Western artists working between Europe and the Middle East. Foundland was awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship for research in the largest Arab American archive in 2015/2016 and shortlisted for the Dutch Prix de Rome prize in 2015 and Dutch Design Awards in 2016.
Nourdin el Ouali
Nourdin el Ouali is the political leader of the Islamic political party NIDA. In 2014, El Ouali departed from GroenLinks as a council member and founded NIDA. NIDA has now two seats in the municipal council of Rotterdam and a total of six seats in the Rotterdam district commissions Charlois, Delfshaven, Feijenoord and Noord.
Thursday Bite
Before the Thursday Night you can grab a bite to eat with the speakers and staff of Het Nieuwe Instituut. At 18:30 Het Nieuwe Café will serve soup with bread or a quiche with salad. Dinner vouchers are available for ¬ 7.50 up to a day before the particular Thursday Night Live! event via the Tickets link.