Au bord de l'âge adulte

Raphaël Rossi is interested in public space furniture, which, despite its seemingly simple forms, exhibits sculptural qualities.

The artist creates benches from steel tubes panels, accentuating the aggressive shapes that public authorities have given to public benches to discourage homeless individuals from sitting on them. He thus highlights the dual discourse of designing furniture for conviviality while proclaiming a prohibition through "unwelcoming forms." The benches invite idleness, internal monologue, or dialogue. These pieces are juxtaposed with films that have shaped his perspective on the world.

The posters of L’âge des possibles by Pascale Ferrand and Comment je me suis disputé by Arnaud Desplechin, which he places on these benches, share a common theme of addressing the generation of 25-35-year-olds, the pivotal moment between leaving higher education and entering the professional world. These young people, born in the 90s, did not experience the Beat Generation nor the hope of the future in the 2000s. Instead, they found themselves in a reality where the prospect of a better world was dissipating.

Raphaël Rossi reflects on a turn-of-the-century youth: what does it mean to be young and reach the end of a century? For the artist, cinema is a privileged medium for exchange, a catalyst for debate, a form of dialogue because it "belongs to no one." It serves as an open path for discussion, allowing the projection of personal experiences and references in a more collective and instantaneous manner than literature.

Text by Valérie Toubas and Daniel Guionnet