On June 3, 1888, French explorer Charles-Marie David de Mayréna founded the Kingdom of Sedang. The Kingdom perished when Mayréna died under mysterious circumstances in 1890.

Italian photographers Lavinia Parlamenti and Manfredi Pantanella are working on An Atlas of countries that ‘don’t exist’ which will cover ten unrecognized states. Their aim is to make a photo book with the five places they covered so far: Transnistria, Catalonia, Nagorno Karabakh, Northern Cyprus and Western Sahara.

By some estimations, Australia hosts around a third of the world’s self-declared micronations. There are three good reasons why

Since 2012 German artist Valeska Peschke has been developing the long-term project ‘Amikejo’ (place of friendship in Esperanto). Under this name, Neutral Moresnet was proclaimed as an Esperanto republic in 1907. Valeska Peschke took up this fleeting utopia as a vision for Europe. Read more about the project on her website.

A Country of Seven Billion Outhabitants, the long read by De Facto’s co-founder Jorie Horsthuis about EuroStaete, was selected for the editorial project The Writings on the Wall, a collaboration of Volume and Beta, the Timisoara Architecture Biennial 2022.

The De Facto team is heading to the Architecture Biennial in Timisoara (Romania). Floor Koomen and Jorie Horsthuis will give a talk about unrecognized states, curious borders and micronations and will participate in a debate with Theo Deutinger and Giovanni Comoglio. Join us for this event!

The Kremlin wants to return to the age when Russia dominated its neighbors across Eurasia. Instead, it’s driving them away.

A Chinese couple plotted to set up a mini-state on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, bribing MPs and officials along the way, US prosecutors say. The man and woman tried to persuade lawmakers to set up a ‘Semi-Autonomous Region’ (SAR) on a remote atoll.

At the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) the international group show Statecraft is still on show till October 30. The exhibition explores the underlying mechanisms at work in the engineering of the nation-state and the challenges it faces in today’s globalized, networked world. Curated by Katerina Gregos.

Statehood and sovereignty continue to be contested in a variety of ways throughout the world, resulting in protracted violent and latent conflicts in pursuit of self-determination, secession, and international recognition. At a conference in Innsbruck (August 22-26), scholars will interact about these themes in conceptual debates across various research traditions.

Thirteen years after he bought it, Uri Geller, a master of the grand gesture, has decided to elevate Lamb’s status from a private Scottish island to that of a country, with a flag, constitution and anthem. Settlement on the island itself is not allowed, its only inhabitants being puffins, guillemots and an assortment of other seabirds - and until recently a solitary rat.

Coinbase’s former chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan wants to use social networks to create states. What doesn’t fit into his vision are things like poverty, illness and ageing.

A wealthy American wanted to build an island republic. The king of Tonga had other ideas.

Photographer Mustafa Saeed sees the potential of all art forms as therapy in a post-war nation, moving towards collaborative efforts to make this happen in Somaliland.