Watasia – Benjamin Barda

Watasia

Nap Love Revolver
I love you and you too

Ongoing series

Watasia is the first country to base its culture, politics and economy on napping. A satirical and poetic project.

As a nomadic country with no territory, it celebrates slowness and poetry as a space of collective psychic freedom.

Its founder, Alfredo Ajarry, is an energetic and eccentric president, placing joy and fantasy at the centre of his citizens’ concerns.

Watasians are constantly on the move, somewhere between Vesoul and Baghdad. They take naps along the way and mark the places they pass through with their imprints, a way of life that deeply shapes their identity: a nation in which everything can be resolved through humour, imagination and generosity. It is now led by poetic councils, with no ministers anymore – a political system of unparalleled gentleness and creativity.

While the world acceleration is spinning out of control, Watasia is a resting delightfull oasis.

Of course none of this has happened overnight! Before Watasia stabilized, it had to overcome quite a few trials and missteps: an ephemeral kingdom, a chaotic first Republic, a Pillows Civil War that led to a lasting division between Eastern Watasia and Western Watasia – the country of pleasures, led by Ilfe de Kalin, Afredo’s twin brother -, and even an authoritarian second Republic and micro-Empire.

Nowadays Watasia is renowned as the world’s leading producer of naps and has even turned them into an international form of art: the catalogue is constantly expanding to include naps that are lazy, cheerful, communal, luxurious, delightful, ecstatic, cosmic, playful, spiritual, intense or light, horizontal or vertical.

Watasia is a poetic, performative, multidisciplinary game (photographs, installations, audio fiction, writing, video, performances) leaving undefined spaces, like so many possible projections for our imagination, and questioning how a nation can blossom without a territory.

With an aesthetic rooted in the absurd and a subtle shift away from reality, I bring a smile to the world’s dead ends, like a joyful rebellion, a soothing balm.

This project is selected to be shown in June 2027 at the French festival Les Mesnographies.

In collaboration with Aurore Monteil, painter, visual artist and performer, for the invention of a primordial language, and the creation of a collage on dreams and chance.

The bird’s departure towards the light of the cosmos, leaving the seeds of the napping tree

Remnants of the ancien kingdom of Watasia

A damaged postcard – after the Pillow Civil War - of the flag of Eastern Watasia. A tribute to the Niras X69 missiles, the jewels of Watasia. Highly effective, they release a gas that makes people fall in love, the ultimate solution on the battlefield.

A damaged postcard - after the Pillow Civil War - with the motto of the Second Republic of Watasia, the Republic of Eastern Watasia

Collage by renowned Watasian artist Olbap Ossacip, nicknamed ‘OO’ (for his wonderful outlook on life), on the themes of dreams and chance

Courtesy of the Watasian Cultural Poetry Council

A damaged page of the Watasian dreamers, the main daily newspaper of Watasia representing His Excellency Alfredo Ajarry with his fellow citizens during the Second Republic, an authoritarian period

Helioport of His Excellency Alfredo Ajarry, President of the Republic of Eastern Watasia, where the people can meditate or take a nap, and receive the presidential sunlight. During the Second Republic, an authoritarian regime based on napping.

Damaged postcard - after the Pillow Civil War - representing Mc Anneck de Tilw, Minister of Naps. Second Republic of Watasia (Eastern Watasia), an authoritarian regime during which all citizens had to be ministers and take a nap everyday.

Damaged postcard - after the Pillow Civil War - representing Ernest Pugelfer, Minister of Fiscal Science and Tourism. Second Republic of Watasia (Eastern Watasia), an authoritarian regime during which all citizens had to be ministers and take a nap everyday.

Gagazole, a unique fuel in Watasia that slows down cars

Official self-portrait of the president during the Second Republic, an authoritarian regime, during which all citizens had to be ministers and take a nap everyday

Nowadays nomadic Watasia with no territory. The gate of dreams leading to secret routes. Watasians are walking between Vesoul and Baghdad with no precise agenda other than napping and writing poetry.

Présidential transe in nowadays nomadic Watasia

Nowadays nomadic Watasia with no territory. Photo report for the Watasian dreamers, the main daily newspaper of Watasia : a well-deserved nap by a Watasian Easterner, during a halt in Paris on the way to Baghdad.

Nomadic Watasia: the president travelling with his fellow citizens

Nowadays nomadic Watasia with no territory. Traces of Watasian naps on the way to Baghdad. Somewhere in Africa.

As citizens of a nomadic country with no territory, Watasians are constantly on the move, somewhere between Vesoul and Baghdad. They take naps along the way, and mark the places they pass through with their imprints.

Nowadays nomadic Watasia with no territory. One of the most secret beach in Watasia, the Quescalan beach (supposedly in South of France), where prophetic dreams always come true!