What makes a state a state? Is it its pomp and tradition? Its surface area? Its population? Its economic independence? Its history? Every location visited on this journey through modern politics certainly looks like a state – there are brash emperors, currencies – that look far better than anything you get in Monopoly – ancient customs, border posts bedecked with gaudy badges and flags, and even micro-Olympics. Except these are micro-nations, a catch-all term defined by photographer Léo Delafontaine as “a variety of post-modernist variations of our different institutional models”, and which should be understood as “a series of deviant, egotistic tributes to the political state”.
There is a lot of humour in his documentary, reflecting the self-mockery that these cryptarchs – or self-appointed leaders – communicate. However, through his portrayal of these full-scale role playing games, Léo Delafontaine examines the values, territorial delimitations and claims to power that exist in every culture. As he took his photographs, he managed to collect various manifestations of these quirky leaders’ sovereignty, after complying with the strict protocol they impose. In fact, he returned from a series of official visits with three or four new (micro) nationalities, a fortune that no bureau de change would accept and a world map showing some controversial boundaries.
Bizarrely, what makes Sealand the most legitimate micro-nation of them all is its lack of recognition by the international community. This 550 square-metre concrete platform sits in international waters off the British coast, held up by two thick columns. In Léo Delafontaine’s photographs, it comes across as an anachronistic island claimed by a modern-day Robinson in a pair of oil-stained shorts. It has its own look-out post – a wooden-seated rope swing hung over the gentle waves of the North Sea, a headquarters with its geostrategic map and radio receivers, and a postal service and stamps bearing images of the great navigators. The same trappings can be found in the other micro-nations, regardless of whether their origins lie in political claims or artistic performances, or whether they seek economic gain or hanker nostalgically after identity. Through these images, Delafontaine has captured the last physical utopias as their golden age draws to a close: rather than seeking physical territory, younger generations are now establishing their own countries online.
EXHIBITION
Micronations, photographs by Léo Delafontaine
From September 12th to October 28th, 2015
Le 247
247 rue Marcadet
75018 Paris
