In Ekeko, drawing upon his Bolivian roots and close ties to the region, Nick Ballón examines the complex cultural inheritance of El Alto’s indigenous Andean people through the material objects of their aspirational self-expression. At the centre of this visual study is the centuries-old Alasitas festival and its poncho-clad patron, Ekeko, the Aymara god of abundanceand fortune to whom miniature incarnations of buyers’ desires for the coming year are annually proffered. Ekeko, also purchasable in miniature, is permanently outfitted in traditional Andean garb, but the range of modern miniatures that adorn him and are lain at his alter suggest the ancient god is not incompatible with the spirit of modern consumerism and globalization (indeed, the Aymara have always been active traders and El Alto is still considered a ‘dryharbour’ through which all nature of goods pass from the Far East to the rest of the country).
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