THE ENDS OF TIME

The Ends of Time is a series of drawings using archaeological techniques, based on the collection of fragments gathered during urban renewal works in downtown Rio de Janeiro, amid the cycle of reforms undertaken in preparation for the Pan American Games and the Olympic Games. A landscape Estrada knew intimately, and historically marked by successive demolitions - such as the dismantling of Morro do Castelo or Pereira Passos’s bota-abaixo - Rio’s city center is often perceived as the result of completed transformations. Under the logic of mega-events, however, it once again found itself under construction. The Ends of Time emerges from the coincidence of seeing the historical past reappear as ongoing urban reform. 

In the series, fragments of asphalt, tile, and concrete are drawn according to the conventions of archaeological drafting. To do so, Estrada worked with archaeologists, learning the technical procedures that govern this type of visual record - its scales, graphic conventions, and protocols of observation.

This process unearthed a central question for the work: what can or cannot be considered lithic - that is, a human trace. In traditional archaeology, the lithic designates stone intentionally transformed by human action. In The Ends of Time, Estrada displaces this definition by documenting fragments produced through mechanized demolition - materials not crafted as artifacts, yet nonetheless resulting from human intervention in the ground. 

By treating fragments and demolition debris as archaeological remains, Estrada does not seek to reconstruct a remote past, but to test the ways history is produced through material evidence. The Ends of Time condenses the regimes of temporality that urban transformation layers upon one another, revealing present-day demolition as part of an ongoing historical process.