Paris (AFP) – “Persevere and not let yourself be determined by your family or social environment”: this is the motto of Baye-Dam Cissé, alias Rakajoo, 37 years old, boxer and fierce self-taught painter, to whom the Palais de Tokyo, in Paris, is devoting a first solo exhibition.
Around ten colorful, figurative and allegorical canvases, with a confident style, mix characters and urban living spaces, integrating animated images. They are next to plates from his first comic strip “ Between the ropes », to be published by Casterman, and portraits, including that of his mother, who died in 2019.
A ” temporal and geographical life course, in which everyone must be able to find their own references », Explains this thirty-year-old born in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), who encountered a number of obstacles.
His nickname, Rakajoo, mule head in Wolof (Senegalese language), “suits him well” because “ everything is accessible to those who really want it », he says in a calm voice at Boxing Beats, the boxing club in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) where he trains daily for the French boxing championships.
Discovered “by chance”, it became his “temple of the spirit”, with “ the Sacré-Cœur, the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay » where he was going « free » teenager to « free the mind “.
At 9 years old, Rakajoo, who draws “ all the time », landed with his mother, his brother and his sister in accommodation of “ 24 m2 » from the 18th arrondissement of Paris, following an expulsion from Seine-Saint-Denis.
Often outside, he goes see the painters of Montmartre and the museums, become passionate about painting »but he is also “very angry” and does not “understand” why his family lives in these conditions, “with drug addicts in the stairwell and (his) mother who sends all her money to the country”, remembers -he.
“ French black »
In 3rd year, he wanted to move towards applied arts, he was advised to “ draw electronic circuits “. After a ” techno baccalaureate », he still encounters refusals. Joining an art school costs “ too expensive “.
“ I refused to put up with the choices of others so I took charge of myself”continues the one whom those close to him describe as “curious”, “perfectionist” and with “incredible perseverance”.
At Boxing Beats, he “ channeled (his) anger » And ” learned to (self) discipline by going to the end of things “.
It is his ” mentor and coach », Saïd Bennajem (who was Sarah Ourahmoune, silver medalist at the Rio Olympics in 2016), who gave him his very first painting commission in 2007: a fresco on boxing for the room. “ I was able to project myself beyond the ring by sprawling on the walls », a space with dominant red and black, where its portrait of the icon Mohamed Ali stands out.
This project, financed by the Arnaud Lagardère foundation, propelled him into the world of work: the animated film then a start-up of mobile game applications that he founded, but in which he did not recognize himself.
At the same time, determined to persevere in painting, he reconnected with Senegal, the country of his ancestors, but where he is considered ” like a white guy, with his ass between two chairs “. In Paris, he regrets, where he organizes exhibitions with a collective, “ Black French, neither African from Africa, nor African American, (he) does not fit into the boxes of the institutional art world either “.
Kourtrajmé, Ladj Ly and JR
His salvation will come from the Kourtrajmé school (short film in verlan), founded by the director Ladj Ly in Montfermeil (Seine-Saint-Denis), of which he joins the “ art and pictures » created by street artist JR.
This quick and free training aimed at young talents who have not had access to higher education schools creates in them “ the essential: a feeling of belonging to a collective history “, he said.
Exhibited with the school at the Palais de Tokyo, where he painted on the “ police violence », he was spotted by gallery owner Magda Danysz, a leading figure in contemporary and urban art, who offered to represent him.
Today, Rakajoo says he makes a living from his art and has found “ the balance “.
He dreams of founding in Senegal “ a sanctuary with animals, which is also a protected educational space “.