Un Sedicesimo 84

Raphaël Garnier's Sedicesimo is a graphic and poetic exercise: the page is a beach and the words move as if following music, and in the end, all that remains for the writer to do is to open the cage and watch them fly away, drawing lines in the sky and images with our imagination.

Artist and designer, born in 1984, Raphaël Garnier lives and works in Paris. He grew up in a village in Burgundy called Château ("Castle" in French), a singular place name that has durably shaped his imagination. His practice, at the crossroads of graphic design and storytelling, is driven by a pursuit of beauty – not as an aesthetic norm, but as a poetic and emotional experience. His relationship with art is almost spiritual: he views creation as a space of passage, where it is less about control than about allowing oneself to be carried through. He develops a personal visual grammar, oscillating between intimate introspection and echoes of a collective imagination, nourished by a fascination with mystery, hidden worlds, and the traces of the past. His approach, instinctive and non-conceptual, draws inspiration from nature and seeks a form of universality. He is interested in so-called primitive arts and in the ways art is embedded in everyday life – through objects, rituals, and the connections between the visible and the invisible worlds. His work gives form to an imaginary realm intended to re-enchant reality.