Ekeka’s walk

At Silva Festival, Valeria Montti Colque will open the festival program on Friday with a collective performance procession. During song and music, the goddess Ekeka is led down a path in Gammelskogen to the festival area at the edge of Kroktjärn.

Ekeka is a goddess inspired by El Ekeko – a figure that according to Andean folk belief symbolizes happiness and prosperity. The figure is inspired by the power, wealth and the lives that every person carries within them. Here she takes the form of a three-meter-high sculpture that is adorned with robes, flowers and decorations, and is filled with magic, beauty and pride.

She is a mountain, a goddess, a cathedral.

Together with several of Montti Colque’s characters and with musicians Ida Lod and David Heikkinen and artist Carlos Martinez, together with guest musicians from the festival, the audience and Ekeka are led on a ritual-like walk that ends with an initiation rite.

The procession opens up a common space where the carnivalesque, magical and dreamy can take place. All festival visitors, visiting musicians, children and adults are welcome to participate.

Nature our living room
Here I am at home
Walking through the Old Forest
Walking through my home
Walking through the seasons
Walking across land, squares and fields
One morning
In the middle of my living room she stands one day an unshakable mountain
Holy mountains
Like a cathedral
Mamita Montaña
Saint Ekeka stands on the top

Excerpt from “The Hall of the Mountain Queen (and the Dragon)” by Valeria Montti Colque