Works

In his new solo exhibition, Roberto Rivadeneira presents a body of work merging—for the first time—his physical and digital art practices, including large-scale PVC prints and mixed media canvases.

Reality Tour is a step into the unknown, a brief encounter within an altered world where perception becomes tangled and turned upside down.
Drawing inspiration from a district in Berlin, Rivadeneira transforms a familiar landscape into an unrecognizable, foreign dimension—playing with the idea of perceived and hypothetical realities. The exhibition explores the fluid relationship between reality, perception, and the transformative nature of space.

As a starting point, Rivadeneira uses photography of random locations in Kreuzberg. With a digital camera, he captures hundreds of mundane scenes—moments that often go unnoticed by locals.
These images reflect the multiplicity of everyday experiences: while we all share the same urban surroundings, we rarely perceive them in the same way. Our spatiotemporal experiences define what carries meaning or remains invisible, making each person’s encounter with a place entirely unique.

Rivadeneira’s aim is to shift the perception of the familiar.
For this project, he selected one image of the Landwehr Canal to serve as the sole visual foundation for the entire exhibition. Inspired by Daniel Richter’s concept—how far can you go with just one image?—Rivadeneira deconstructs and reinterprets the photograph, stretching and bending its meaning until it becomes something new.

Between 2021–2022, Richter produced a series of works based on a single cheap postcard from the First World War. Similarly, Rivadeneira uses one image but instead of repeating it, he dismantles its narrative, testing its limits and possibilities. Through this process, the original meaning of the photograph dissolves, giving way to new forms.

Using technology, the image transforms into an abstract version of space.
The exhibition presents multiple canvases and prints as part of a site-specific installation. A ten-meter-long printed PVC piece displays the entire image of the Landwehr Canal—placed directly on the gallery floor. Visitors are invited to walk on the upscaled print, breaking the two-dimensional barrier and entering an immersive environment.

The paintings in the show are based on different cut-outs of the manipulated image. These fragments are printed on canvas and overpainted with oil, fusing abstract digital imagery with traditional painting techniques, offering new spatial readings.

By challenging the flatness of painting, Rivadeneira invites us to rethink our everyday environments through multiple perspectives.
Following the thread of a single image, he experiments with radical ways of seeing—sometimes bordering on psychedelia—acknowledging the coexistence of parallel realities within the same urban context.
Reality Tour becomes a portal into a distorted digital landscape, where the familiar turns speculative, and perception is constantly redefined.

Text by:
Linda Toivio