The Politics of Rest

Vilcabamba, Ecuador—also known as the sacred Valley of Longevity—is the subject of Alex Dolores Salerno’s eleven-minute video El Dios Acostado (The Sleeping God), 2020. In the opening shot, we see someone dressed in black lying on his side in front of Mandango Mountain, whose peaks and curves resemble his body’s own. In the 1970s, some North American gerontologists became fascinated with Vilcabamba, which is near the artist’s mother’s hometown, San Pedro da la