Raphael Leray is a Paris-born self-taught software engineer, experimental sound artist, and member of interdisciplinary art duo MIRA新伝統, founded in Tokyo in 2018 with performer Honami Higuchi. Reflecting on his interest and experience in ritual and mysticism, Leray analyzes ritual’s potency in fostering community synergies beyond conventional belief systems through a non-dogmatic, sociological, and structural lens. His perspective has been shaped by his engagement with Zen Soto and Theravada Buddhism, as well as his active involvement in the Tokyo co-masonic lodge of “Le Droit Humain” from 2010 to 2022. 

Currently based in Athens, Leray oversees the conceptual and narrative framework of the city’s Hyperlink art gallery, curated by Alexandra Koumantaki. Meanwhile, his work through MIRA新伝統—deeply inspired by theory-fiction and post-anthropocene perspectives—seeks to counteract both the social elitism and “contentification” of art, while reaffirming its transformative potential as a vehicle for political and sociological change.