Culture

THE CREATION OF LITERARY WONDERLANDS: TRENDS AND TENDENCIES

19 Aug, 2014 | Christy Callaway-Gale

From C.S Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia through Cortázar’s Ajolotes, supernatural worlds are in abundance in literary works. But what makes a literary wonderland tick? If we take a look at Britis...

THE ART OF MARCELO SUAZNABAR: APOCALYPTIC SURREALISM

19 Aug, 2014 | Niamh Mcintyre

A first encounter with the work of Marcelo Suaznabar is equally fantastical and unsettling. At first, there is a visual delight in the surreal chaos of the image, as in El Macabro Paso del Tiempo, whe...

TIME DIFFERENCE

19 Aug, 2014 | Niamh Mcintyre

“The clock is just one part of a whole conjunction of themes. If you only see the clock going backwards you're not seeing anything.” At midnight on the 21st of June this year, Bolivians witnesse...

FACTORIES IN EL ALTO

19 Aug, 2014 | Lulu Shooter

CONSTRUCTING ALTERNATIVE WONDERLANDS El Alto is one of the fastest growing city in Bolivia in terms of population, architecture and ideas. Lulu Shooter discovers that there’s more to life within the...

EL CEMENTERIO

19 Aug, 2014 | Lulu Shooter

A short story by Lulu Shooter fusing Andean legends and English West Country roots. Is the grass always greener in your imagination? ‘You’re doing it wrong, María!’ ‘This is exactly right, estú...

The Islamic Republic of Bolivia

25 Jul, 2014 | Sorcha Thomson

In his 2010 visit to Iran, Evo Morales asserted that Bolivia and the Islamic Republic share an ‘identical revolutionary conscience’, aimed at fighting imperialism and injustice in the world. Bolivia’s...

CHOLETS

25 Jul, 2014 | Alex Walker

The Neo-Andean Wave Sweeping El Alto Gaudy and garish, the mini- mansions of El Alto stand as striking symbols of Bolivia’s new Aymara bourgeoisie. It is a phenomenon that has exploded so quickly o...

PIMP MY SIGHT

25 Jul, 2014 | VALERIA WILDE

Valeria Wilde looks beyond the signs and stickers to understand the unintentional urban aesthetic shaping Bolivia’s cities. Many people who pass through this city of contrasts, mysteries and pecu...

The Bolivian Cult of K-Pop

25 Jul, 2014 | Alex Walker

Mention K-Pop to a non-obsessive and their knowledge of the genre will most likely extend to Park Jae-sang’s Gangnam Style and, if you’re lucky, its sequel Gentlemen — think Alvin And The Chipmunks: T...

IDENTITY

25 Jul, 2014 | INSKE GROENEN

Can its Origin be Found in Bolivia? Bolivians are as diverse as the landscape they live in. While one Paceño is lively and energetic like the dense Amazon, his neighbour may well be a quiet la...

A MINING OLIGARCH IN FOOTBALL

25 Jun, 2014 | Inske Groenen

Earth's riches join the game The big pyramid-shaped mountain overlooking Potosí has always had its power over the city. The silver coming from this Cerro Rico –rich hill– once brought unbelievabl...

CUMBIA CHICHA

22 May, 2014 | Wilmer Machaca

Wilmer Machaca explains the social significance of one of the most popular (yet marginalised) musical styles in the country. Cumbia is very popular in Latin America: originally from Colombia, vir...

PERIFÉRICA BOULEVARD

21 May, 2014 | Alex Walker

Underworlds in Bolivian Literature At the turn of the 20th century, writing in Bolivia almost exclusively tackled surface issues like campesino life and later the globalisation of the nation. ‘Pe...

DARK GODS, DARK RITES

21 May, 2014 | Alex Walker

When Ukrainian model and Barbie doppelgänger Valeria Lukyanova proclaimed herself to be a reincarnation of the Tiwanakan god Wiracocha, little did she know that she was adding to Bolivia’s long, dark...

Mercadito Pop

17 May, 2014 | Leo Nelson Jones

Popping Up Soon—at an Unspecified Location Near you Mercadito POP was originally created in June 2012 as an underground and economically collaborative Pop-Up crafts fair in La Paz. The organizers sa...