Álvaro Martínez

Graphic and Design Anthropologist

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Category: Allgemein

Rokooko

Mundo rokooko.  “Mundo rokooko” is a much-loved project that we created together with my friend and colleague Pilar Montesinos. Our goal was to create characters and their stories from the images and traditions present in the Bolivian culture. Co-creator of the brand. Character design, illustration, toy design, animation, product design, souvenirs. We developed the following […]

Character Design

In 2014, I had the privilege of studying and graduating as a Character Designer from Pictoplasma Academy. This unique and enriching experience has profoundly shaped my artistic journey. Since then, I have been creating character designs both in my free time and professionally. Here are some examples of my work from the past few years.

Public Anthropology

Client: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial -und Kulturanthropologie, Freie Universität Berlin Website: www.publicanthropology.de Web design, logo and colours, visual advisor, illustrations, blog editor. Logo Design

Shelves Gigs

Client: Tempelhof Stadtbibliothek Schöneberg YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTW2ztPRTUNFXGsIa0k394TmwMnkEmLPK http://www.youtube.com/@stadtbibliothektempelhof Director of the concerts in the Libraries in Berlin Tempelhof/Schöneberg. Camera: Luiza Folegatti and Maria Bethania Medina Sound: Santiago Carrión-Arcos Apart from directing, I also did all the aesthetics, including designing the logo below.

Impressum

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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.