Vernissage of the installation 2014/3/19 Tour Panorama I la Friche Belle de Mai

Whether hanging loose without a dancer to wear them or hampering movement, costumes have often been a constituent part of Christian Rizzo’s work. His approach to clothing has attracted the interest of couture houses, even though the choreographer specifies that “from the moment fashion enters a theatre, it becomes a costume”.
For Spring at the BNM, the choreographer and his associate, Caty Olive, for whom light is a form of writing for the stage, have devised a installation out of some of the 3,500 items that have dressed the company’s stars since the days of Roland Petit. However it is not about an inventory of gestures that have disappeared: in Ou Pas the dancers are invited to an introspective abandonment, carried by the enigmatic encounter between history-laden costumes and their contemporary presence.

“This installation, perfected with his partner Caty Olive, allows Christian Rizzo to continue his research. “I’ve worked a lot in fashion and I wanted to see it in a different way,” explains the multifaceted creator. The choreographer has therefore devised a strange playground for dancers out of these coloured archives, these relics of fabric. You may be surprised by their presence or not… hence the title of the exhibition. Dance is always possible in this production, in the midst of the 3,500 clothes forming a plinth. Christian Rizzo wanted this work to be like a “suspended present”. All he does is evoke these costumes and what they take along with them, “codes of ballet as anyone who doesn’t know them might imagine them to be”. Having become a material like any other, this mass is spread out like a luminous, smoke-filled landscape. “The dancers can be moving and when people come, maybe nothing happens. It’s like an encounter that isn’t premeditated; it's very beautiful,” explains the contemplative Christian Rizzo.

Christian Rizzo was born in 1965 in Cannes. His artistic career began in Toulouse, where he started a rock band and designed a line of clothing, after which he studied fine arts at the Villa d'Arson in Nice, then unexpectedly branched out into dance.

In the 90s he performed with a number of contemporary choreographers including mathilde monnier, herve robbe, mark tompkins and georges appaix, and sometimes created soundtracks and costumes for them as well.

He also worked with choreographers with a different artistic approach, such as vera mantero, catherine contour, emmanuelle huynh and rachid ouramdane.

In 1996 he founded l'association fragile and began presenting events, dancing objects, solos and group pieces, as well as various projects and commissioned work in fashion and the visual arts.

Since then, over thirty projects have borne fruit, not counting his pedagogical activities. Christian rizzo teaches on a regular basis in art schools in France and abroad, as well as in establishments devoted to contemporary dance.

On January 1st, 2015, Christian Rizzo takes the lead of the National Choreographic Center of Montpellier. Now called ICI (International Choreographic Institute), the CCN offers a transversal vision of creation, training, artistic education and openness to the public.

Source : Website of ICI, CCN of Montpellier

More information :

http://ici-ccn.com/

http://www.lassociationfragile.com/