Tarot de Marseille
The idea of reinterpreting the enigmatic « Tarot de Marseille » was born from a promise…
A simple story that began at the very start of my artistic journey—a face to face between a young aspiring photographer and his great-uncle, a tarot reader. On the evening of my 17th birthday, during a reading, I discovered these images for the first time, utterly fascinated. The cards began to speak, and Gepeto gave me an appointment—without a date or time—sealed with a promise: the idea of a shared project. Seven years later, after my travels and attending art school in Paris and the US, despite our long absence of contact, he came across my photographic work and finally revealed his wish to me—the desire to publish his own tarot deck, featuring real people in photographic interpretations of ancient iconography.
While continuing my experiments as a “Photographe-Plasticien,” I studied the fundamentals of the Tarot by his side: its symbolism, its forms, its colors, its philosophy, its history… and, of course, its mysteries. Four years later, the first prototypes began to take shape. While Gepeto was designing a series of symbols representing the Major Arcana (the back of the current cards), I had created, with my friend and artist Etienne de Fleurieu as my model, the first test for Le Bateleur (The Magician). The vision was materializing—until one summer evening, when Gepeto left us. The ticking of a heart that ceased.
Continuing the project alone at that moment was inconceivable. My inspirations led me toward other works, but the deep feeling to bring this vision to life never left me. It felt like a legacy. It took me fifteen years, in 2023, as if driven by urgency, to pull out all my notebooks and drafts of Le Bateleur (The Magician). I was finally ready—both technically and personally.
This series represents all the stages of my life’s canvas—the exploration of different mediums, the hybridization of analog and digital, the search and research for an iconographic style, and, perhaps most importantly, the most magical thing in life: encounters. Soon after, I met Anthony Morabito and his artistic eye. He became the catalyst I needed to complete this project.
This « Tarot de Marseille » is, therefore, deeply autobiographical. I selected each person based on how their essence resonated with the main character of the card they embody. There are faces I have lost, friends, family, and, above all, encounters that have crossed my path on my artistic journey. And with each one, there is a story…
In this work, it was always essential to preserve the quintessence of the original arcana—their colors, the intrinsic symbolism and the image's composition. Technically, I blended modern and ancient processes, a subtle alchemy I have been exploring for years in my surrealist photography.
The series takes on multiple forms:
Unique, hand-painted mixed-media pieces (analog/digital, inks and watercolors, gold leaf).
A special edition for art object enthusiasts (double-sided printing on Forex).
Giant tarot cards integrated into museum architecture.
And, of course, a functional tarot deck for divinatory readings.
This deck, published in a limited edition of 1,000 copies, signed and numbered, comes with a poetic booklet.
It unfolds the story of an inner dialogue, where, from card to card, from door to door, the allegory of each arcana is revealed:
"Listening to the voice of the one who whispers within us—the inner traveler."
The first exhibitions will take place in Brussels and Paris starting from 2025 onward. SEE DIARY
Studies for a monumental photographic installation.
