An international team led by the Dutch artist and activist Jonas Staal is building a “people’s parliament” in the city of Derik in the northern region of Syria known as Rojava, where the mainly Kurdish population declared autonomy in 2013.
The new building is intended to provide a focal point for Kurds and other communities who launched the Rojava Revolution during the ongoing civil war in Syria and the fight against Isil fundamentalists. The parliament and surrounding park will provide the city with its first open-air space for cultural events and political meetings, which were banned by the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking from the region, Staal says that he hopes the structure will become a destination for “many public demonstrations” in the self-administered city. Half of the funds for the parliament is coming from the Democratic Self-Administation of Rojava. The rest from Staal and his team, which is being supported by the Dutch organisation Mondriaan Fonds, which assists Dutch visual arts with public money.
In Rojava, the Kurds and minority communities are creating a multi-faith, non-sectarian, “stateless” democracy; one of its founding principles is equal rights for women. But they face many challenges, and most of their efforts are focused on fighting Isil. “There is a huge offensive going on to take back Isil-controlled villages,” Staal says. “The booby-traps and mines that [Isil] leave behind result in many deaths.”
There are also huge shortages in the region, which are aggravated because the border with Turkey is sealed. This is because the Turkish government considers the Kurdish militias to be terrorists, thanks to their affiliation with the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Despite these challenges, Staal says that there has been a “cultural revolution” in the region. After years of oppression, cultural centres and art schools have been created “all over”. The nearby archaeological site of Urkesh, which was excavated by a team from the University of California, Los Angeles, before the civil war, is guarded by the community to prevent looting. This summer, film-makers and artists established a film “commune”, organising a Charlie Chaplin season for children. “Everyone is committed to creating something new in the face of the devastation,” Staal says. “The struggle of the Kurdish people has everything to do with the defence of culture, long forbidden by the states of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.”
New World Summit
Staal is the co-founder of the New World Summit, a collective that has organised alternative parliaments during the Berlin Biennale and elsewh ere in Europe, using art to provide a platform for opposition political groups, including the Kurdish Women’s Movement and separatists from the Basque Country, the Philippines and Mali. In October, the artist co-organised the first of three planned conferences in Derik under the New World Summit banner. Invited delegates included around 30 from abroad, among them Robert Kluijver, a curator and lecturer in international relations and contemporary art at Sciences Po in Paris. Kluijver says that the summit enabled delegates to gain a thorough understanding of the revolution, adding that, in Rojava, the young Dutch artist has found the “perfect partner”.
“The Rojava revolution is extremely pragmatic. It may be inspired by ideals, such as abolishing the state and full gender equality, but those ideals are being realised, not just talked about,” Kluijver says. “For three years now, the entire population—including, as I could see, minority groups—has been mobilised to create a new society.”
Staal and the New World Summit team are “contributing to the difficult task of establishing a new form of governance in the world”, says Charles Esche, the director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, adding that the Dutch institution plans to support the project by acquiring art produced by Staal and his team.
Staal is hopeful that his open-sided, circular parliament will be ready by next spring, despite limited access to machinery; the priority for excavators is digging fighters’ graves. “The first arches are standing” and concrete for the circular seating below has been poured, he says.