In many mythologies, from India to Malaysia via China and Japan, the World is a sphere or disk lying on the back of a sea turtle floating in the universe.


This rough, handmade chessboard, found in a market in Antananarivo in 2015, so poetically crystallizes this ancient image. A chessboard is the site of war that pits two sides against each other, and as such can be considered a symbolic projection of a certain reality, a certain world. The figures in a chess game also gather a number of characteristics and roles that leave room for the imagination to project real social situations onto them. Pushing the projection game further, the author has changed some figures and the rules of the game to make them tell a personal story.

The game Psycho Queen is thus the story of a psychotic person, more specifically a paranoid one. The 8 x 8 step board is divided into two halves: the golden one where the Whites move, the silver one where the Blacks move. Players can take turns playing any pawn, but only the queen can eat; moreover, each time a queen is moved, the opposite queen must move mirror accordingly. The aim of the game is to make the opposing queen eat all her allies.

The paws have different origins. Some have been made specifically for the Board Games series project. Most of them are collected object whose common criteria is their cuteness.

White Queen, White Bishop, White Tower, White Horse – Vandrika (malagasy wood),
Black Queen, Black Bishop, Black Tower, Black Horse – Vandrika (malagasy palissander), figures carved by Jean-Claude Rasolondraibe, malagasy miniaturist, after drawings by S.Alaimo in 2019 ;

Virgin Mary – golden medal, baptism present of the author ;
Lamb – childhood toy of the author, plastic gilded with pure gold leaf ;
Buddah, bought on a market in Katmandu in 2006 – massive brass gilded with pure gold leaf ;
Turtle, bought on a berliner market in 2024 – jasper gilded with pure gold leaf ;

Baron Samedi, traditional malagasy chessboard figure carbonized and silvered with silver leaf ;
Pig, bought in a roman market in 2024 – massive silver ;
Evil Spirit, traditional malagasy chessboard figure – chloritoschist silvered with silver leaf ;
Frog, bought in a roman market in 2024 – massive silver.