CHRONOTOPIAS. SILVIA RIVAS

Chronotopia, derived from the ancient Greek “chronos” (time) and “topos” (space), is a term that emphasizes how Silvia Rivas’s work challenges the relationship between time and space, blurring the boundaries between the two.

• This exhibition contextualizes more than 25 years of Silvia Rivas’s artistic career, focusing on her work’s tension between space and time.
• Over the years, Rivas has shown an increasing interest in the temporal arts and spatial practices, using techniques such as slow motion, expanded reproduction, and time-lapse effects. The artist has refined this approach through video installations, animations, and complex liminal environments, creating captivating and emotionally resonant experiences for the audience.
• Rivas conceives her works as part of a broader series, like narrative chapters told through images. Chronotopias brings together selected works from her most iconic series and presents the work Not Me, Nor Body or Instrument, (Chance and Need) (2024), conceived especially for this occasion.
• Rivas began experimenting with the expressive possibilities connected to expanded cinema in the late 1990s, incorporating elements of performance, installations, and multimedia into her works, which gradually became more technically complex. This resulted in innovative works that play with perception and space.

Her preference for video performance stems from its dynamic interplay between space and time. Over the years, Rivas has pushed the limits of this medium, blurring the lines between live action and pre-recorded images to create powerful works that invite reflection on diverse themes such as identity, memory, society, and perception.

The term ‘expanded cinema’ describes a film, video, multimedia performance, or immersive environment that transcends traditional cinema boundaries and rejects the one-way relationship between the audience and the screen.

With her keen interest in the limits of audiovisual expression, Rivas delves into the essence of the moving image, harnessing the power of video to traverse temporal thresholds, capture fleeting gestures, and illuminate significant circumstances, creating an alluring experience that captivates and inspires the viewer.

All exhibited works have been spatially reconfigured to dialogue with the Museum’s architecture and adapt to the specific needs of the space. Rivas’s artistic investigation addresses themes such as identity, memory, society, and perception, inviting the viewer to a deep emotional connection and to question the meaning beyond the moving image.

Silvia Rivas | Courtesy by the artist

Curated by Eugenio Viola: Born in Naples (Italy), he is a curator and art critic with a PhD in Archaeological, Historical and Artistic Research Methods and Methodologies from Salerno University. He is currently Chief Curator at the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art – (MAMBO), and Curator of the Italian Pavilion of the 59th Venice Art Biennale, 2022.

He worked as General Curator at the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina – MADRE (Naples) from 2009 to 2016, and from 2017 to 2019 as Senior  Curator of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts – PICA.  He has collaborated with numerous Italian and international institutions, Furthermore, Viola was curator of the Estonian Pavilion in the 56th edition of the Venice Art Biennale), subsequently exhibited in the Museum of Occupations and Freedom in Tallinn, Estonia. He has curated over 70 exhibitions in Italy and abroad, over 50 catalogs and books, and contributed to numerous international publications.