Raphaël Barontini prioritizes challenging the historical canon surrounding cultures and territories marked by slavery or colonisation. His approach invites the exploration of new imaginaries and narratives enriched by a pluralistic history. His paintings, flags, banners, tapestries and ceremonial capes question the representation of power, its rituals, and its carnivalesque inversion. To achieve this, he employs a unique visual collage technique that combines photography, screen printing, painting, and digital printing. The artist defines himself not as a historian but rather as a storyteller: his extensive research leads to narratives and representations that are distinctly his own. His practice creates alternative narratives, highlighting various heroes and heroines, both real and imaginary.

Raphaël Barontini was born in 1984 in Saint-Denis, where he lives and works. For the Nuit Blanche 2024, he developed the performance Déboulé Céleste. In Spring 2024, he presented a solo exhibition “I live a journey of a thousand years” at the Currier Museum of Art (Manchester, USA). In 2023, he presented an exhibition at the Panthéon entitled “We Could Be Heroes” for which he produced performances. Recent exhibitions include: “Des grains de poussière sur la mer” (Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, 2024), “Globalisto. Une philosophie en mouvement” (MAMC +, Saint-Étienne, 2022), “Possédé·e·s” (MO.CO, Montpellier, 2020). He is represented by the gallery Mariane Ibrahim (Chicago, Paris, Mexico).