AA Visiting School El Alto, Bolivia 22nd January-11th February 2018 www.elalto.aaschool.ac.uk elalto@aaschool.ac.uk
Research Places and Events Alasitas Festival La Paz El Alto Carnaval de Oruro Contents Masks & Graphic Culture Fragments Cholets AA Visiting School Cultural Assembling Schedule
Alasitas Fair On the 24th of January each year, La Paz is filled with market stalls lining the city’s many streets and parks. People from all over Bolivia come to fill their shopping bags with houses, cars, electrical goods, clothing, food, computers, airline tickets and even university degrees, all for the unbeatable price of a few bolivianos. Taking place just before Carnaval, Alasitas Fair is a month-long festival, where locals purchase miniature items to give to Ekeko, the Aymara god of abundance, in the hope he will bring fortunate and happiness to their lives. Originally, Alasitas was celebrated in September, during which time farmers from all around the country would pray to Ekeko, giving him miniature gifts to ensure plentiful crops for the year ahead. Today, the meaning of Alasitas remains the same, the only difference being instead of praying for abundant crops, locals pray for things such as wealth, education and travel. Although Alasitas is based around an Andean deity, due to religion in Bolivia being a mix of Catholic and Andean beliefs, the Catholic church also joins in the festivities. At midday on January 24th, Catholic priests bless the miniature gifts in San Franciso Cathedral along with honouring the Virgin of La Paz.
24th of January Alasiats Festival selling miniatures from money, to tiny cholets, to Ekeko(s) as a good luck for the coming year
El Alto Sprawled over a high plateau above La Paz, El Alto is arguably Latin America’s largest indigenous city. The Aymara are the indigenous (native) people who live in the altiplano (high plains) of the Andes Mountains of Bolivia. Bolivia has the highest proportion of indigenous peoples of any country in South America. It is also the poorest country on the continent. Aymara mythology has many legends about the origin of things, such as the wind, hail, mountains, and lakes. The Aymara share with other ethnic groups some of the Andean myths of origin. In one of them, the god Tunupa is a creator of the universe. He is also the one that taught the people customs: farming, songs, weaving, the language each group had to speak, and the rules for a moral life. Memorable cholitas are a symbol of Bolivia with their colorful skirts and multilayer, their elegant bowler hats and long black braids, these indigenous women continued for centuries to dress in traditional clothing Aymara, typical of the indigenous population living in Andean highlands. For decades the term cholita was offensive, used by the white ruling classes of the country to show these girls, social subordinate class, which in many cases do not even speak Spanish, but only the traditional Aymara language. But in 2006 with the arrival in power of President Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of the country, it has imposed a narrative that rehabilitated the cholitas, describing them as the backbone of the traditional Andean communities.
El Alto’s backyard greenhouses have become symbols of urban agriculture on the Bolivian altiplano, the 125 000 sq km Andean plateau that is home to an estimated 4 million people
Carnaval de Oruro This Carnaval is one of UNESCO’s Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Originally an indigenous festival dating back more than 200 years ago, the celebration later was transformed to incorporate a Christian ritual around the Virgin of Candelaria (Virgin of Socavón), which takes place on March 2. The traditional Llama llama or Diablada became the leading traditional dance of the festival. The modern festival demonstrates the ongoing pagan-Catholic blend of religious practice in the region. The carnival starts with a ceremony dedicated to the Virgen del Socavon. Marching bands compete simultaneously in the grotto of Pie de Gallo on Sunday, which is the greeting to the Virgin. The highlight of the festival is the three-day-and-three-night parade of 48 groups of folk dancers over a four kilometer route to the sanctuary of the tunnel. Three days prior to this Saturday pilgrimage, people visit the symbolic pagan condor. A week after the pilgrimage, they visit the snake south of the city, the toad to the north and the ants to the east. The pilgrimage culminates in the enactment of two medieval-style mystery plays. The first is about the Spanish conquest and the other revolves around the classical battle between good and evil, with the Archangel Michael ultimately triumphing over the Devil and the Seven Deadly Sins. The latter play was introduced by Catholic clergy in 1818. In all, there are over 28,000 dancers, about 10,000 musicians in 150 bands, 400,000 visitors stretching over four miles.
Carnaval de Oruro: Bolivian masks of animals and demons in the street for 20 hours of continuous partying
Masks Many Bolivian festivals are a form of religious celebration, expressing a syncretism of paganism and Catholicism. Folkloric dances and music each have their unique costumes, musical instruments and rhythms, and these celebrations may last for days on end, often from early morning to late at night. Some traditional dances from the Andes have spread throughout the country and can be found in many of Bolivia’s large processions, like the Morenada, Diablada and Caporales. Masks are an essential part of Bolivian celebrations, allowing dancers to adopt the personalities which populate the country’s myths and legends. Demons, dragons and angels join representations of real-world creatures like bears and beavers. Most interesting are the masks based on characters from Bolivian history, such as caricatures of Spanish matadors, and African slaves brought over to work in Potosí’s mines. Andean and Amazonian masks join those from the Chaco and the country’s eastern lowlands, in an incredibly thorough presentation of over fifty typologies.
The Ceremonial Masks of Bolivia: Morenada and Diablada
Graphics The Aymara culture presents a strong attitude towards colours, textures, graphic and figurative elements. Roberto Mamani Mamani, of Aymara origin indeed, is one of the Bolivia’s most highly recognized artists. His beautiful and very colorful works of art are collected and exhibited worldwide. He has won numerous national and international awards and his paintings are known best for their vibrant colours and the intense emotions they both exude and evoke. All his works of art contain elements of Andean culture. The colors he uses have specific meanings and represent parts of his culture and the folklore and beliefs of his people. In his paintings, yellow suns are male, pointed mountains are male, rounded mountains are female, blue moons are female, horses (brought to the Americas by the Spaniards) represent the colonization and enslavement of his people, and so on. Each piece tells a story and each colour and shape is specifically chosen to represent part of that story. The attention for colours and graphics is so rooted in Bolivian society that it can be found in a lot of more popular items: from the folkloristic costumes used during many festivities to certain advertisement campaigns. It is therefore a visual culture open to contaminations, that involves and represents also themes not stricly related to Andean traditions.
Mamani Mamani’s 2D Graphics, textiles, ornaments and Tinku costumes in Calle de los Andes
Miniatures and Fragments During the Alasitas Fair, to have their wishes granted, Bolivians purchase a small statue of Ekeko (‘dwarf’ in Aymará) to put in their homes throughout the year. They then buy themselves and each other, the miniature items they hope Ekeko will grant in real life. Next they have the tiny gifts blessed by a shaman, then pin them to Ekeko’s poncho while praying for good fortune. Because Ekeko is a demanding God who must be kept happy, along with providing him miniature gifts, Bolivians also light a cigarette in his mouth, sometimes throwing a bit of alcohol on the floor in front of him before drinking it themselves. In return for these gifts, Ekeko watches over their family, keeping misfortune at bay and reciprocating any generosity he receives before the year is out. However, everyday of the year you can buy small metal tools, wooden or textile pieces in the area between Calle Sagarnaga and Calle Los Andes. Most of these fragmets have or can acquire symbolic connotations in specific rituals. One of those is the “challa” - a ceremony to praise the Pachamama that is based on the act of watering the earth or another good with alcohol. In this ritual very common element is a colorful altar where offerings are made, covered by a series of edible elements: an aguayo and carries fruits, candies, spices, cereals, candies, walnuts, wine, flower petals, streamers.
Alasiats Festival’s miniatures are blessed to bring good luck to those who buy them, parcels of confetti to wish for a successful project are called Mesa de la Challa
Cholets Mamani moved to El Alto as a young man. His father, a bricklayer, taught him to build. Walking into one of Mamani’s buildings is like coming out of a rabbit hole into an electric Bolivian wonderland. It’s a jolt to the rods and cones. The interiors of his buildings feature twostorey ballrooms that are spellbinding tapestries of bright paint, LED lights and playful Andean motifs: chandeliers anchored to butterfly symbols, doorways that resemble owls and candy-coloured pillars that could hold up a Willy Wonka factory. One soaring wedding hall evokes the inside of a reptile, with arching roof beams like dragon ribs and huge orange curlicue mouldings that could be alligator eyes. “We use the colours of our textiles, colours that are alive,” said Mamani, who traces his inspiration to the elaborate shawls and other traditional garments made by his mother and fellow Aymara weavers.
Freddy Mamani Silvestre’s buildings and facade in El Alto
Cultural Assembling Bolivia’s bustling and chaotic capital is what makes a fertile ground for cultural assembling. In fact, the city has many faces, from the immense highlands of the altiplano, to the agglomeration of small houses on the top of the city, the center of the paz, to the Zona sur area. The visiting school questions the idea of identity, of folklore and rituals translated into architecture. Architecture itself must become a collision among this multitude of fragments, far beyond its disciplinary boundaries. The project starts with the Alasitas Festival in order to gather as many readymade fragments, which will be then, de-contextualized in terms of meaning, proportions and materiality to create a radically new artifact. Through the study of Andean architecture examples in El Alto, students will have the opportunity to assemble their elements through an architectural hierarchy. From Freddy Mamani Silvestre, to the study of textiles, to the creation of mesa de la challa, all these references will help to build a new identitarian piece of architecture. The workshop will end with the Carnaval of Oruro, where students will put together their own outcomes in a collective project translated into dance steps, masks, objects, or transcripts.
Aymara mythology and man making costumes for the Alasitas Fair
Schedule First Week| 22nd January-29th January Alasitas Fair Arrival & General Introduction of Visiting School, Brief and Schedule. In the first week, students will have to create their own narrative, choosing a character of the Diablada (Bolivian traditional dance) and combining it with their personal cultural background. In the following days, they will have to visit the Alasitas Festival, collecting fragments and pieces, creatign an iconographic catalogue for the previously constructed narrative. With the fragments they have selected, they will have to start building their own artifacts through drawings, models, videos etc. Workplaces: UCB, Graciela Rodo Boulanger’s studio. Second Week| 30th January-3rd Feburary El Alto The second week is centered on the discovery of El Alto, analyzing the topography, customs, and differences with the center of La Paz. There will be two different workshops with the participation of Mario Sarabia and Freddy Mamani Silvestre. The first days will be dedicated to transform each narrative into a tridimensional model, then the students will start to edit the different fragments and translate them into architectural components, following new constraints, but still keeping the original symbolic meaning. Workplaces: Mario Sarabia’s studio, Teatro Trono Third Week| 3rd February- 11th February Oruro During the third week the students will start to assemble their individual outcomes into a single architectural project. Each model or set of fragments will be metaphorically treated as a character of the Diablada, therefore the resulting collective design will be based on its choreography. It will be possible to see how the costumes and the masks are chosen by the dancers and how the parade is organized. Following the features of this folkloristic and religious ritual, the architecture will represent an identitarian assemblage. After the final presentation hosted in a cholet, the students will travel to Oruro, where they will be able to participate to the Carnival. Workplaces: Teatro Trono, Cholet Crucero del Sur
Collaborators and Guests Delphine Blast Graciela Rodo Boulanger Fernando Cajias Alejandra Delgado Mario Sarabia Freddy Mamani Silvestre
SCHEDULE Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
10:00 Museo Nacional de Arte + Introduction to the Visiting School 14:00 Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore
Guest Lecture: UCB
Alasitas Fair:
Delphine Blast
Selecting and Collecting fragments
Introduction to Photography Work Session: UCB
+ Fernando Cajias: masks and dancers lecture 20:00
Construction of a narrative, myth, ritual related to the assigned character
Alasitas Fair: San Francisco Basilica Mercado Lanza Calle Sagarnaga
Workshop:
Workshop:
Workshop:
El Alto Market:
Graciela Rodo Boulanger’s studio
Graciela Rodo Boulanger’s studio
Graciela Rodo Boulanger’s studio
First investigation in the Altiplano
Introduction to her work, collection of objects and techniques
Collages + Paintings
Crafting fragments + Assembling Tapestries
Mercado Fermin Lopez: exploring wares, amulets and esoteric magic
Dinner!
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
10:00 Workshop:
Workshop:
Workshop:
Teatro Trono
Teatro Trono
Teatro Trono
El Alto:
Mario Sarabia’s studio
Mario Sarabia’s studio
Mario Sarabia’s studio
Guest Lecture: Freddy Mamani Silvestre
Workshop: Freddy Mamani Silvestre
Workshop: Freddy Mamani Silvestre
Cholets Visit
Making models + Assembling 3D pieces
Collective presentation of the invidual projects: models and artifacts
Andean Architecture + Aymara identity
+ Valle de la Luna 14:00 Introduction to ceramic making, metal welding and wood carving
20:00 Dinner + Drinks!
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Dinner!
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
10:00
14:00
Teatro Trono
Teatro Trono
Teatro Trono
Teatro Trono
Cholet Crucero del Sur:
Carnaval de Oruro:
Guest Lecture: Alejandra Delgado
Workshop: Alejandra Delgado
Work Session
Work Session
Final Presentation + Invited guests from UCB
Dances and Parade
Introduction to her work
Museo Sacro, Folklorico, Arqueologico y Minero + Museo Casa Arte Taller Cardozo Velasquez Travelling back to La Paz Bus transport 3.5h
20:00 Travelling to Oruro Bus transport 3.5h
Dinner + Party!
Goodbye!
People Sabrina Morreale (Programme Head) (Rome, 1990) AADip graduate 2016. She worked in several offices as architectural assistant in London, Italy, Thailand and Cambodia. She taught at the Istituto Marangoni, linking fashion with architectural artifacts. She is collaborating with several magazines as illustrator. Her projects have always been related to the idea of fragmentation, using different media, enhancing the process of how things are made and assembled together. She is now working as curator assistant at the RIBA and as Architectural assistant with The Decorators. http://sabrinamorreale.com/ Lorenzo Perri (Programme Head) (Florence, 1989) received his Diploma with Honours at the AA in 2016. He worked as a consultant for the Architectural Design Lab in Florence and for Inter 7 at the AA, while participating to several international competitions. His work has been published and exhibited at the 14th Architectural Biennale in Venice. He is a co-founder of the research-based Plakat Platform and the Architectural practice ec ò l. Obsessed with geometry and aesthetics, precision and expression, before architecture he studied engineering and classical piano. http://e-c-o-l.it/ Ronald Grebe Crespo (Tutor) (La Paz, 1989) UCB graduate 2015. His thesis was developing the town of San Jose, in the Bolivian Amazon, taking into account the traditions and heritage of that specific area. He has worked as an Architect and site supervisor for SCB in La Paz. He has been a Bolivia Associate of the International Design Clinic, leading the renovation of some unused areas in El Alto and creating work places where people could meet and exchange tools. He has been a First Year Tutor at the UCB and he is now doing his Master in Integrated Architectural Design in La Salle, Barcelona. http://www.internationaldesignclinic.org/
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