New World Embassy: Rojava

(Project by Jonas Staal)

Installation / Embassy



New World Embassy: Rojava
by Jonas Staal

Besides large-scale summits, the New World Summit also develops embassies in collaboration with stateless states, autonomist groups, and blacklisted political organizations, entitled New World Embassies. The second edition, titled New World Embassy: Rojava, was a temporary embassy constructed in the Oslo City Hall, which represented, through cultural means, the ideals of ‘stateless democracy’ as developed by the Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava (northern Syria).

The embassy consisted of a large-scale, oval shaped architectural structure, designed as an ‘ideological planetarium,’ departing from the universalist symbols of different political organizations in the Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava. Instead of orienting on traditional notions of statehood, the project took the shape of a stateless embassy for a stateless democracy: aiming to contribute to a transdemocratic politics beyond the traditional boundaries of the nation-state.
Colophon

Project | New World Embassy: Rojava
Concept | Jonas Staal
Commisioned by | Jonas Staal
Type | Installation / Embassy
Date | November 26-27, 2016
Location | Oslo City Hall, Norway
Architecture | Paul Kuipers
Visual Identity | Remco van Bladel
Production Coordinator | Younes Bouadi
Construction | Frits Ham, Volkert Post, Peter Bedner, Bouwko Landstra
Print Fabric | Riwi Color
Photography (top) | Ernie Buts