Entre les cordes

Paris-based artist Rakajoo presents Between the Ropes at Danysz Gallery, March 28–April 30, 2026, alongside his debut graphic novel (Casterman), featuring original pages and new works.

On the occasion of the release of Rakajoo’s first graphic novel on March 25, Danysz Gallery presents Between the Ropes , a major multidisciplinary project marking a turning point in the Paris-based artist’s career. Inspired by his personal experiences without being strictly autobiographical, the book, published by Casterman, explores themes of adolescence, friendship, and conspiracy in the heart of Paris and Aubervilliers. In parallel with these events, Rakajoo unveils a mural spanning several hundred square meters at Boxing Beats, marking a return to his roots in the club where his journey began. BAYE-DAM CISSÉ, AKA RAKAJOO Born in Saint-Denis in 1986, Baye-Dam Cissé, known as Rakajoo, stands as a key figure of the new generation of French painting. Trained in the Art & Image program at the Kourtrajmé school and recipient of the Prix des Amis du Palais de Tokyo in 2022, he has developed a visual universe where the codes of classical painting meet the energy of manga and animated cinema. Since the beginning of his career, Rakajoo has consistently documented his daily life and that of those around him. His work has been exhibited in major institutions including the Louvre-Lens, Les Franciscaines in Deauville, and the Palais de Tokyo, and presented by the gallery in Paris, Shanghai, and Geneva. Today, he returns with a mature artistic vision that closely intertwines popular storytelling with painterly rigor. FROM CANVAS TO PAGE The exhibition Between the Ropes offers a rare immersion into the artist’s creative process. Danysz Gallery presents the original pages of the graphic novel—true foundations of the work—in dialogue with a selection of previously unseen paintings that elevate scenes of everyday life and moments of sporting tension. This dialogue highlights the continuity of his style and reveals how his paintings draw inspiration from the rhythm of comic storytelling to form a coherent whole. The graphic novel itself becomes an artwork: the major canvases used for the book’s cover are revealed as large-scale oil paintings, their echoes resonating from one location to another, inviting visitors to continue the journey to Aubervilliers to discover the monumental mural. AN URBAN AND SOCIAL COHERENCE Beyond the walls of the gallery, this project unfolds within a powerful temporal and symbolic geography. The release of the graphic novel and the Paris exhibition resonate with the inauguration of Rakajoo’s large mural at Boxing Beats in Aubervilliers—the very place where everything began for the artist. Spanning several hundred square meters and painted entirely in oil, this historic mural retraces the epic story of both women’s and men’s boxing. Through a composition inspired by the language of comics, the work follows the tradition of historical painters and places the viewer at the center of the action: becoming both a privileged spectator of the ring and of the scenes unfolding in the gym. Rakajoo’s references are as rich as they are diverse, ranging from Urasawa and Kishimoto to Delacroix and Léon Lhermitte. For the first time, he offers a comprehensive view of the complexity of his creative universe and the fusion of influences that shape his style. This synergy between publishing, exhibition, and public space underscores the artist’s commitment: to narrate an era, to make visible marginal trajectories, and to transform intimate memory into a universal social critique. More than ever, Rakajoo is a talent to watch—an artist forging his own destiny.

What to expect:
Painting, Drawing