ONE WALL BY ROBERTO RIVADENEIRA

At the corner of Bülowstraße/Zietenstraße, just across the street from the URBAN NATION Museum, you can find a new attraction in Schöneberg: The ONE WALL by Roberto Rivadeneira. With references to abstraction and cubism, the mural ties in stylistically with the new formal language of the museum’s artistic program, which in the future will be oriented more towards urban themes and architecture.

Under the title “Because the moment simply is” the Berlin-based Ecuadorian artist Roberto Rivadeneira (aka Urku) created a metaphor for colliding time periods. The idea: Just as the abstracting forms overlap in his painting, past and future intertwine with each other as well.

EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED 

The title and concept of the mural is based on Kurt Vonnegut‘s anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five. In the book a higher being is asked: “Why me? Why us?” The answer is: “Because the moment simply is”. For Rivadeneira, the year 2020 presents a time when everyone had to take a step back and could do nothing but observe the events unfolding. An inner attitude that probably describes quite well how many people have been and are still being affected by the political events that have taken place during the pandemic. With his huge mural, the artist tries to put the developments of this year in order. In his design, Rivadeneira represents time as large, coalescing shapes. They move and change and can appear simultaneously on the entire façade of the building. According to his own statements, the painter wants to stimulate the viewer’s perception and play with the idea that everything is connected:

“By using this metaphor I want to create a moment of reflection towards the viewer, and allow us to think how in a year as chaotic as 2020 everything remains connected and each of our actions as individuals creates a reaction to our surroundings.” – Roberto Rivadeneira

RIVADENEIRAS GLOBAL INFLUENCES

Born and raised in Quito, Rivadeneira lived and studied in Brisbane and Sydney before moving to the German capital a few years ago. This multiculturalism fosters the ideas that the artist transfers to canvases and house facades. His art is influenced by everyday observations in different cities and societies.

Rivadeneiras works are explosions of color, which he carefully sorts and balances. The artist is strongly influenced by the painters of the early 1900s. By playing with static surfaces and ornamental abstraction, Rivadeneiras painting refers, for example, to the Art Nouveau period, in which artistic wall and ceiling decorations played a decisive role. Rivadeneira succeeds in combining this classical wall art with influences of post-graffiti, focusing his murals and paintings specifically on ornament, form and color.

NEW FOCUS ON THE BERLIN SCENE

The latest ONE WALL is a further step in the new concept of artworks commissioned by URBAN NATION. In addition to a reorientation in terms of subject matter, Berlin artists in particular will be invited in the near future to design new facades in the city. Besides the limitations of travel due to Corona, the increased support of local artists is an important commitment to Berlin as an art hub:

“With this large-scale facade design by the artist Roberto Rivadeneira on the residential building at Bülowstrasse 101, another stylistically abstract and colorful work by a Berlin-based artist and muralist is being created within this year. By inviting Rivadeneira, the ONE WALL program of the URBAN NATION Museum shows a further facet of the variety of techniques and working methods that the artistic scene of Berlin has to offer. In his previous work, but also with the new work conceived for URBAN NATION, the artist succeeds in conquering our urban urban spaces with color-charged pictorial worlds, without relativizing the architecture and building structure on which he works as a painter. His radiant, abstract and fantastic worlds of color take up urban themes such as cityscape and architecture and invite the viewer to observe his surroundings more closely.” – Jan Sauerwald, Director of the URBAN NATION Museum.

The ONE WALL by Roberto Rivadeneira is located at Bülowstraße 101 in Berlin-Schöneberg.

(Museums management and choice of artist: Jan Sauerwald)

Photos by Nika Kramer