Nap Love Revolver
I love you and you too
In Watasia, anything goes. My new take on the satirical photography genre aims to question the representation of power and attempt to deconstruct its artifices. Representing the ministers of this imaginary micro-state as brilliant – in the true sense of the word – is my way of denouncing the deliberate manipulation of photos on the collective consciousness. By representing the country of Watasia and its landscapes as beautiful, I wanted to emphasise just how much the political image is also the ultimate illusion.
Politicians often stage their private lives in the hope of making them appear close
to their “compatriots” and in this way better establish their power. Playing on image turns the notion of closeness into the greatest distance and the most effective means of building power. Machiavellian.
In Watasia, I enjoyed playing on this hyper-affinity, using the acid colours of childhood and a reassuring twist that ensures perspective. The strong image of power hypnotizes – it is the perfect fraud to which, as accomplices of a fool’s game, we willingly consent.
For this series I coupled photography with performance: Alfredo Ajarry, the “nice” president, is also his own official photographer and director of this luxury, glossy-paper brochure.
Inspired by Ubu, Borat and Brazil as well as Joan Fontcuberta and Cindy Sherman, I imagined a mad utopia to question the artifices and ceremonial of power.
