Diablada Collage (Photography & Digital Composition)

This work began with me being photographed in a traditional Diablada costume, a dance I had once performed as a student in La Paz. The mask and embroidered attire carry centuries of Andean tradition and symbolism, blending myth, ritual, and performance. When I lived in South Korea, I reprinted and reassembled these photographs into a digital collage, layering multiples of myself in the same stance.

The repetition reflects the way Diablada is danced in Bolivia: groups of performers moving in unison, their identical costumes creating a striking rhythm of color, movement, and identity. By multiplying a single figure into many, the collage echoes that collective spirit while also exploring themes of self, diaspora, and cultural memory.

This piece was exhibited internationally in Busan, South Korea, where it connected Bolivian tradition with new global audiences. For me, it is both personal and communal meditation on how dance, costume, and repetition preserve heritage across borders.