Text written by: Linda Toivio

‍   In Eternal Return, Roberto Rivadeneira presents a site-specific solo exhibition, immersing viewers in an exploration of space and perception. This series of paintings continues an ongoing research on merging his physical and digital art practices, and developing the process through new technologies while maintaining a focus on abstract painting. Unsought subjects such as street benches and patches of snow serve as points of reference in Rivadeneira’s playful documentation, which he gathers in familiar surroundings around his neighbourhood and the urban landscape of Berlin. The artworks are exhibited in Fahrenheit Space, which provides a contrast of darkness and reflective surfaces to the canvases’ illuminated palette.

   Rivadeneira collects a library of 3D scans of objects spotted on the street, which he then manipulates into bases for his abstract paintings. He captures anything that could allow him to play with the perception of given objects as well as the perception of what and how we see. He circles around a selected target, while the software is reading it together with the surroundings, rendering them into a 3D scan. The artist uses a 3D software to model the scan into some form of digital sculpture, in order to obtain the desired images from the process. Different scans are combined and the original images destroyed, to achieve the final abstract compositions. The selection is printed on linen, which he then covers with oil painting. The distorted rendering can still be detected in the background here and there, as the oil paint does not fully hide the image. The brushstrokes and the thick texture of the paint enable a more organic impression, detached from the digital aloofness.    

   The exhibition is somewhat unexpectedly linking abstract painting with a 19th century philosopher. While reading Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Rivadeneira’s attention was captivated by the idea of ‘eternal return’ or the infinite repetition of what constitutes existence in the present world, a central notion in Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. This concept affirms that life repeats itself infinitely in a loop, everything that happens has already happened and will continue happening for eternity.

‍“This life as you now live and have lived it you will have to live once again and innumerable times again; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unspeakably small or great in your life must return to you, all in the same succession and sequence […]” Nietzsche, The Joyous Science, 1882  

   Once you accept this pattern, you can attempt to improve yourself and your actions, as you become aware that you will have to live through all of it again and again. This can be considered a dreadful burden, ’the greatest weight’ or the highest affirmation of life to be embraced. Every action, good or bad, will bear similar questions: what consequence might this have and do I wish to go through it in a hypothetical perpetuity? In his novel, Kundera references Nietzsche, but rejects his idea of a circular perpetuity, where everything should be worth repeating, instead focusing on a lighter form of being, where moments, people and emotions are fleeting. He suggests an existence occurring on a linear life line, fixed in time and space.
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   It is comforting to follow Kundera’s train of thought and its lightness; making mistakes or wrong choices is not, after all, a tragedy, only a passing nuisance we can learn from. On the other hand, Nietzsche’s philosophy on eternal recurrence can encourage us to be and do better, to assign greater meaning and value to the events, objects and things around us.

   Reality is only a matter of perception and perspective, a subjective experience and ever-changing. By endlessly manipulating the renderings, Rivadeneira crosses the blurred boundaries between physical and digital realities. Through this research, he is delving into the complexity of human perception and suggesting an alternative understanding of space, time and linearity. The paintings stand out in the unusual space consisting of black walls and large mirrors, fitted on the back wall but also in the centre of the room. A gigantic black and white print serves as a monochrome backdrop for some of the works. The wallpaper borrows its imagery from the rendering series, unintentionally creating a mountainesque scenery. The concept of the eternal recurrence also transpires in the physical space through the opposing mirrors placed in the exhibition room, where they reflect the paintings, bouncing the images back and forth between one another.

   Rivadeneira’s Eternal Return challenges how we perceive the experiences which shape our understanding of the world around us, similar to Nietzsche’s thought experiment challenging traditional notions of time and existence. The viewers are not ushered to a particular narrative path, they are free to form and follow their own perceptions of space. The artist is merely presenting options, potential alternative perspectives or realities, which might or might not make sense.