Rimma Arslanov - Francesca Polizzi
There is a Crack in Everything
RizzutoGallery is thrilled to announce the opening of the exhibition "There is a Crack in Everything", two-person show by the artists Rimma Arslanov (Tajikistan, 1978) and Francesca Polizzi (Palermo, Italy, 1988), which will be inaugurated on Friday 18 October 2024 at 6p.m. at the new gallery venue located in Düsseldorf at Ackerstraße 34.
The exhibition takes its title from Leonard Cohen's iconic phrase in his song Anthem: “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”. The two-person show by Rimma Arslanov and Francesca Polizzi uses the metaphor of the "crack" as a key to explore themes related to trauma, memory and the possibility of regeneration through art.
The exhibition will be open until 23 November 2024 - from 19 to 22 October every day from 11am to 6pm - from 23 October to 23 November only Saturday from 12 to 6pm or by appointment calling +49 157 73718369.
Rimma Arslanov, born in Tajikistan in 1978 and raised in Uzbekistan, moved to Israel bringing with her a cultural baggage full of contrasts and stratifications. Her artistic research, influenced by this identity complexity, focuses on armor as an extension of the body, not only as a defense, but as a symbol of a vulnerability hidden under a hard surface. Through her works, Arslanov creates images where the human body is both present and absent at the same time, represented by skin tones that express a disturbing sensuality, a "delicate brutality", as she herself describes it. Her installation and painting works evoke a state of tension, where physical and mental pain is suggested but never explicitly stated. Wounds, like cracks in the fabric of existence, become here points of access for light, places where a possibility of understanding and catharsis manifests itself.
Francesca Polizzi, born in Palermo, Italy in 1988, works with organic materials, mainly raw wool, but also wax, natural resin and brambles, which she transforms and shapes with gestures that recall ancient artisanal practices. Sculptural bodies, prints and paintings on wool felt, environmental installations with references to architecture, in her works Polizzi intertwines personal and collective memories, trying to build an emotional and symbolic refuge through the use of raw wool and the frequent representation of caves. The wool, an ancient natural fiber, soft and resistant, becomes a metaphor for warmth and protection. For its part, the cave, first refuge of the human being, becomes for Polizzi a liminal place of transition where the individual can find himself away from external threats, but also a space for processing one's own shadows in relation to the others, a place of meditation where the scars of the past can be contemplated and, perhaps, healed.
Between fragility and strength, "There is a Crack in Everything" is not just an exploration of vulnerability and trauma, but also a path through resilience and transformation, a personal and collective journey towards new possibilities of connection and rebirth.
