Propaganda Station
1:1 Model / Panopticum
Ostrava / PLATO
City Gallery of Contemporary Art
Jeremy Bentham
Title | Propaganda Station
Concept | Jonas Staal
Commissioned by | Studio Jonas Staal
Type | 1:1 Model / Panopticum (School & Exhibition)
Date | 2023-2024
Architecture | Paul Kuipers
Visual Identity | Remco van Bladel
Project Coordination | Veerle Driessen & Nadine Gouders
Photography Ostrava | Jan Kolsky & Ernie Buts
Images process | Paul Kuipers
Text | Jonas Staal
Location 1 | Ostrava, PLATO Gallery of Contemporary Art
Location 2 | Skopje, MoCA Museum of Contemporary Art
Location 3 | Zagreb, MSU Museum of Contemporary Art
Propaganda Station
Propaganda Station aims to make visible the various contemporary propagandas that actively shape our world today. The central installation is designed as an inversed panopticon: instead of surveilling the visitor, it provides the viewer a position of counter-surveillance over the work of propagandists that influence our everyday life.
Propaganda Station consists of various ‘cells.’ Each cell introduces a different contemporary propaganda, such as Ultranationalist Propaganda, Alt-Right Propaganda, Liberal Propaganda, Financialization Propaganda, Empire Propaganda, Climate Propaganda and Geological Propaganda. Overseeing these different propaganda cells, the viewer becomes part of a reversed balance of power: now it is them surveilling the propagandists, instead of the other way around.
At the center of the installation is a ‘propaganda school,’ where different artists, academics, journalists, theorists, campaigners and activists give lectures, workshops and trainings in the field of propaganda analysis, and (counter)propaganda work.The term ‘station’ in the Propaganda Station, can be read in multiple ways. The exhibition-project operates as a place where different propaganda models are ‘stationed.’ Through the propaganda school, it is also a station that researches and transmits alternative narratives and ideas about the meaning of propaganda, its history, and its present-day application.
Location: Zagreb, MSU, Museum of Contemporary Art
Assembling Instruction
Location: Skopje, MoCA Museum of Contemporary Art
Floorplan