Raffaella Cortese is proud to present a double solo show by Miroslaw Balka and Roni Horn, which will occupy simultaneously the gallery spaces in Via Stradella 1 and Via Stradella 7. This is a new chapter in the series of two-solo artist shows that the gallery has begun to experiment with last season, showing Daria Martin with Anna Halprin and Michael Fliri with Asta Gröting.

The German title for the show is a hard translator’s game. The idea is that of a “dialogue between privately situated topics”. This evokes the themes of identity and of memory which both artists have consistently investigated in giving birth each to a hard-hitting, essential body of work, able, at once, to generate intense and penetrating poetry.

Roni Horn will present two sculptures: the first one is titled Black Asphere and it is typical of her post-minimalist production. The second one, Double Moebius is titled after the namesake geometrical strip having one face only but appearing as possessing two. The optical illusion that originates, gives this sculpture an impression of intimacy and of eternity. There will be also several photographic sets taken from the artist’s series Untitled (Weather) that show a character’s facial expressions varying according to climatic conditions.

Miroslaw Balka will show two new sculptures that are cast out authentic wuthering drama that characterizes his research. 2x(250x200x100cm) references the Nazi past as it appears in the picture of Irma Grese, sharply and frontally outlined against what one may interpret as history itself. There will be also works by Balka that function as mementos for people’s inner phobias and obsessions as, for instance, 50x50x91. In accordance, the series of lithographs titled A Crossroads in A. shows landscapes of the Auschwitz concentration camp modified by the artist – a glacially intense work that well suits the photographic shots of people and landscapes by Roni Horn.