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Architect Paul Kuipers created the spatial design for Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective, an exhibition project by Jonas Staal.

An exploration of how the artistic work of Steve Bannon influenced the rise of Donald Trump and the policy of his presidency, this project by the artist Jonas Staal delves deep into the importance of propaganda art in the rise of the international alternative right (alt-right) movement. In _Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective, _Staal analyses and deconstructs the mechanisms of propaganda art today. He also raises the question of how to develop a possible emancipatory propaganda art as a counterblast.

The upper gallery of Het Nieuwe Instituut is rather awkward, Paul Kuipers admits. The space consists of a number of long, narrow corridors running between the concrete supports that extend, without interruption, over the breadth of the large gallery below. Kuipers has worked on exhibitions there before and that experience helped him to turn the limitations of Gallery 3 into a natural design. "I wanted to avoid seeing the space as an obstacle, to make optimal use of it," he says. "The walls become a natural part of the route - you could say that the building dissolves in the exhibition model. While we were making the exhibition, we sometimes called the continuous corridor 'the gut'. We wanted to create a compelling route, which gives the exhibition a militant quality."

To create that compelling experience, the ends of the corridors are connected to one another by means of a curved wall. Drilling into the solid walls of the exhibition corridors is not allowed - a restriction that is a challenge for the designer. "We developed a system of wooden H-profiles and all the components of the exhibition, including the video screens and a number of objects, are attached to or presented on these," explains Kuipers. A labyrinth of screens was created in one of the corridors, while another is filled mainly with props, such as a copy of the lectern from which Trump gave his first press conference as president.

Kuipers works regularly with Jonas Staal, developing ideas about the spatial elaboration of Staal's projects together with him. This exhibition about the artistic, cultural and political work of Stephen K. Bannon, the man who became famous as the campaign leader and adviser of US president Donald Trump, was organised as a chronological journey through Bannon's artistic development, following the elongated corridors on the third floor.