Álvaro Gabriel Martínez Céspedes
Born January 29, 1985 in La Paz, Bolivia. Resident in Berlin since September 2016. Married, one child.
March 2020
Exhibition Design
Certificate Course
Modul 1: Exhibition Design
Berlin Career College der Universität der Künste
June 2019
Approaches and Methodology of Ethnographic Research
Postgraduate Diploma
Universidad Católica Boliviana
July 2017
Licentiate in Anthropology
Thesis: “Symbol in rituality in the healing process of soul diseases in La Paz, Bolivia.” (95/100 points) See abstract
Universidad Católica Boliviana
Ethnographic Fieldwork between June 2015 – September 2016 (15 months) in La Paz-Bolivia
Oct. 2014
Contemporary Character Design and Art
The Pictoplasma Academy of Berlin
2012
Advanced courses in Graphic Design
Module 1: Editorial Design
Module 2: Publicity Design
Instituto Atenea, La Paz-Bolivia
2007 – 2009
Private art studies in the atelier of sculptor and painter Windsor Vargas Moreno.
Atelier Windsor Vargas Moreno, La Paz-Bolivia
May 2021-August 2022
Scientific assistant responsible for the digitalization and visualization of the project “Ageing in a Time of Mobility”.
Max Planck Institut for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
October 2017 – May 2021
Art Director. Project: “Medienwerkstatt Encounters”
Stadtbibliothek Tempelhof/Schöneberg, Mauerpark Institut e.V.
May 2018/June-July 2019/ September 2020
Workshop convenor “Picturing Encounters 2018/2019/2020 and exhibition curator – “A workshop for storytellers and illustrators” followed by an exhibition in a gallery and public libraries.
Stadtbibliothek Tempelhof/Schöneberg, Mauerpark Institut e.V.
Since Dec. 2019
Visual advisor, web designer and member of the scientific Working Group “Public Anthropology”
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial -und Kulturanthropologie / Freie Universität Berlin
Since January 2018
Artistic consulting and creation of the promotional material for the concert series:
2018, “Unter Gleichem Himmel” in Berliner Dom
2019 Strasbourg, France
2022 “Concert Ukraine” in Berliner Dom.
The Diplomatic Choir of Berlin. German Foreign Office
November 2017
Illustrations for the theater play “Vatersprachmusik” from Director Isabella Sedlak
Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
2015 – Sept. 2016
Illustrations for primary school textbooks
Editorial Santillana
August 2016
Co-Creation of the graphic image for the XXI International Book Fair of La Paz-Bolivia
Cámara Departamental del Libro de La Paz
March – Oct. 2015
Artistic consulting, Social Media and creation of the promotional material of the project “Roland Barthes Amateur” for the Roland Barthes Year
www.roland-barthes.org/static/pdf/centenaire_lapaz.pdf
Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Instituto de Investigaciones Literarias (ILL)
2012 – Dec. 2016
Product and Character Designer. Co-founder of the start-up Mundo Rokooko
Illustrator, Character Designer, Toy designer
Mundo Rokooko
2009 – 2012
Director and founder
Spanish language school for travelers “Pico Verde languages“
June 2022
Co-author of the book: What happens when we meet? Encounter as a method of cross-cultural learning
Waxmann Verlag
August 2021
Encounter magazine, third edition – concept, layout, design, illustration – Cover illustration
Medienwerkstatt Encounters, Stadtbibliothek Tempelhof/Schöneberg
February 2020
Encounter magazine, second edition – concept, layout, design, illustration
Medienwerkstatt Encounters, Stadtbibliothek Tempelhof/Schöneberg
October 2018
Encounter magazine, first edition – concept, layout, design, illustration
Medienwerkstatt Encounters, Stadtbibliothek Tempelhof/Schöneberg
January 2019
Illustration for the article “The art of studying the BureaucraTree”.
Published in the volume “The Art of Bureaucracy” in honor of Prof. Dr. Thomas Bierschenk
2011
Graphic novel adaptation of the novel “La Chaskañawi” as part of the project “Novelas fundamentales de Bolivia del Siglo XX”, with author Mirka Wanda Slowik.
Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz
16 -17 May 2019
Speaker at the Colloquium “Exploring the ecologies of mind in (mental) health: eco-pathologies and onto-politics of healing economies”.
Workshop of the AG Medical Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin
11. July 2019/ 17. September 2020
Curator of the exhibition “Picturing Encounters” at the Mittelpunktbibliothek Schöneberg “Theodor-Heuss-Bibliothek”.
Medienwerkstatt Encounters
May 2016
Collective Exhibition “We Dance Like Monsters”.
Artwork: “Monster Matrix”
Pictoplasma Festival Art, Aquabit Gallery, Berlin
May 2015
Pictoplasma Festival graduating class Pictoplasma Academy 2014, Collective exhibition.
Artwork: “Jiwata”
Urban Spree Art Space, Berlin
November 2021
Commendation AVA 2021 – Award for Best Visual Ethnographic Material Addressing Ageing and the Life Course
AGENET – The EASA´s Age and Generations Network
December 2016
Selected for the Iberoamerican Biennial of Design with the project Mundo Rokooko
5a Bienal Iberoamericana del Diseño, Madrid
February 2016
Scholarship for best Anthropology Student (Semester I-2016).
Universidad Católica Boliviana
Spanish (Mothertongue)
English (Fluent)
German (Very good)
Adobe Indesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Lightroom, WordPress, Elementor, Zbrush, Procreate, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Power Point.
Symbol in rituality in the healing process of soul diseases in La Paz, Bolivia
In my thesis I researched a healing technique through rituality and use of symbols developed by the inhabitants in the surroundings of La Paz-Bolivia. Ritual and medical specialists in this region have an understanding of the human being in a holistic and complementary manner. The human, the non-visible beings (spirits) and their ecosystem are perceived as one entity where the balance has to be preserved through reciprocal relations. The violations of normative including this reciprocal norm will conduct very often to a state of sickness or weakness.
Medical and Ritual Specialists are the people in charge of maintaining the balance between the different spheres of the universe. They read the coca leaves, the cards, or the drawings made by their patients to discover the causes of the unbalance. When this is discovered, then a healing technique has to be applied. This techniques are varied but among all of them the koa is the one in which this research is focused on. The koa consists in an offering of a mesa (a preparation of a dish full of symbols and, among others, a death llama fetus) to the spirits at a sacred place.
From the deep case study of one of these specialists, Don Gonzalo Ávila, and the analysis and study of many other specialists and related practices, this research examines the use of symbols as a technique of healing through the koa, the reading of coca, cards and drawings, and the use of talismans and miniatures.