Immersive Interculturality: Reconfiguration of the Andean Cosmovision and Ecological Awareness through the Chakana

Abstract One of the most recurring iconographic representations in the kichwa aboriginal cultures of Ecuador and Andean countries is the Chakana, or Andean cross. It is a existing symbol that is still used today in the cultures of various peoples. It represents fundamental Andean ideas such as complementarity, duality, reciprocity, correspondence, and relationality. As part of the activities of the Loja International Festival of Living Arts (FIAVL 2025), an immersive version of the Chakana was created in collaboration with sages of the Kichwa Saraguro people, with the aim of providing visitors with a transformative experience related to their culture. A study was designed to analyze the change in participants’ perceptions and understanding before and after the experience at the inmersive Chakana, highlighting the impact of immersion on their relationship with Andean culture, nature, and spirituality. This study adopted a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design combining pre–post surveys with semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. The findings suggest that the immersive experience strengthened symbolic understanding of the Andean worldview, reinforced affective connections with nature, deepened intercultural appreciation toward Kichwa Saraguro knowledge, and broadened the perception of art as a transformative socio-environmental mediator. The study is situated within a specific contextual scope, particularly in relation to the number of interviewees. It aligns with principles of community action research, emphasizing the active participation of the Saraguro community through collaborative dialogue, co-creation, and collective validation, ensuring that the knowledge generated through interaction with participants enhanced the understanding of the Andean indigenous cultural context.