Ñawpa Urku is a video installation that weaves poetry, sound, and digital animation in a speculative narrative told from the perspective of an Andean volcano. Expanding on Andean Futurism, the project uses cinematic strategies and collective speculation to interweave game engines with Andean indigenous worldviews, imagining a future where the Andean landscape and its diverse communities can exist and occupy space.
The project emerges from a collaboration with Kichwa poet Yana Lucila Lema, who provides the voice of the volcano, and sound artist José Alejandro Salgado, responsible for the sound design and for giving voice to the Apu, a Kichwa term referring to sacred mountains, which can also be translated as “chief.” Ñawpa Urku unfolds in three chapters, projected onto different surfaces within the exhibition space, disrupting linear time to create an expanded, multisensory video experience.