A man of many worlds
An Artist's Vision
Christian Rizzo is not easy to define. He is a multifaceted artist who thinks outside the box, developing his favorite themes and obsessions, revisiting archetypes and rituals and essentializing them into abstract signs, bridging extremes: vagueness and high-definition; baroque and abstraction; intimacy and fantasy.
A nomad of the eye and mind, he is like a juggler of objects and music, bodies and movement, who operates freely between the arts, and also between the arts and life. His trademark is more than a style, it is a vision, and a certain way of listening to the mysterious music that surrounds us.
In Rizzo's world, enigmatic links are woven between the visible and the invisible, like signs scattered through a tapestry of reality and fantasy - sometimes futuristic and abstract, or mythical and rooted in atavistic dreams.
His first piece, an installation, set the template for his future work: two dresses hung "face to face", united by the tip of their sleeves sown together, performing a delicate duet of projected shadows, swaying to and fro in the air blown by a series of small fans standing on the floor.
A blend of simplicity and refinement, Rizzo's pieces are fashioned by the space he designs for them, overflowing with powerful images and opening the mind to an awareness of new dimensions.
l'association fragile - an artist's company
The company was founded on the notion of collaboration, and Rizzo himself is directly involved in a variety of artistic endeavors: designing clothes and costumes, objects and sets, as well as pieces conceived for theaters and other spaces.
He has been shaping his adventure for over a decade, collaborating with a close group of artists who play their own part in the development of his works, giving them their particular quality of soundscapes and sophisticated lighting.
Balancing between the group and the individual, the formed and the unformed, he has gradually built his own methodology through branching out into different fields and free-associating with his collaborators.
In addition to the dancers, whose bodies are constantly at work, the lights and music acoustic or electronic- also shape the space envisioned by Rizzo.
In a way, "fragile" works like an agency, its modus operandi based on the Bauhaus and its gathering of visual artists, architects and choreographers. Yet it remains an artist's vision focusing precisely on what is at stake in any collaboration.
From utopian project to realization, Rizzo revises the notion of community, his projects encompassing a limitless inner world within a predetermined frame. He is indeed an artist with a vision.
Among the very first -and ongoing- supporters of "fragile", the Theatre de la Ville in Paris and the Centre National de la Danse de Pantin have funded his productions, while the Centre de developpement choregraphique in Toulouse, then the Quartz in Brest have presented various performances and offered residencies to the company.
Since 2007, l'association fragile / christian rizzo has been in residency at the Lille Opera.
Synopsis of an article by Irene Filiberti
Denise Lucioni
An Artist's Vision
Christian Rizzo is not easy to define. He is a multifaceted artist who thinks outside the box, developing his favorite themes and obsessions, revisiting archetypes and rituals and essentializing them into abstract signs, bridging extremes: vagueness and high-definition; baroque and abstraction; intimacy and fantasy.
A nomad of the eye and mind, he is like a juggler of objects and music, bodies and movement, who operates freely between the arts, and also between the arts and life. His trademark is more than a style, it is a vision, and a certain way of listening to the mysterious music that surrounds us.
In Rizzo's world, enigmatic links are woven between the visible and the invisible, like signs scattered through a tapestry of reality and fantasy - sometimes futuristic and abstract, or mythical and rooted in atavistic dreams.
His first piece, an installation, set the template for his future work: two dresses hung "face to face", united by the tip of their sleeves sown together, performing a delicate duet of projected shadows, swaying to and fro in the air blown by a series of small fans standing on the floor.
A blend of simplicity and refinement, Rizzo's pieces are fashioned by the space he designs for them, overflowing with powerful images and opening the mind to an awareness of new dimensions.
l'association fragile - an artist's company
The company was founded on the notion of collaboration, and Rizzo himself is directly involved in a variety of artistic endeavors: designing clothes and costumes, objects and sets, as well as pieces conceived for theaters and other spaces.
He has been shaping his adventure for over a decade, collaborating with a close group of artists who play their own part in the development of his works, giving them their particular quality of soundscapes and sophisticated lighting.
Balancing between the group and the individual, the formed and the unformed, he has gradually built his own methodology through branching out into different fields and free-associating with his collaborators.
In addition to the dancers, whose bodies are constantly at work, the lights and music acoustic or electronic- also shape the space envisioned by Rizzo.
In a way, "fragile" works like an agency, its modus operandi based on the Bauhaus and its gathering of visual artists, architects and choreographers. Yet it remains an artist's vision focusing precisely on what is at stake in any collaboration.
From utopian project to realization, Rizzo revises the notion of community, his projects encompassing a limitless inner world within a predetermined frame. He is indeed an artist with a vision.
Among the very first -and ongoing- supporters of "fragile", the Theatre de la Ville in Paris and the Centre National de la Danse de Pantin have funded his productions, while the Centre de developpement choregraphique in Toulouse, then the Quartz in Brest have presented various performances and offered residencies to the company.
Since 2007, l'association fragile / christian rizzo has been in residency at the Lille Opera.
Synopsis of an article by Irene Filiberti
Denise Lucioni
