Pilgrimage and Civilization
Migration is an essential part of forming civilizations, and it is affecting many in this early 21st century. I, too, come from a family of forced migration, running away from communist Czechoslovakia. From Venezuela, Africa, Central America, Africa, and the Middle East, a line of people walks towards the unknown carrying a concrete dream. Dream or illusion, New York City or Europe, spiritual or existential, a pilgrimage will always express hope and willingness to leave everything behind.
Artists Cristo and Jeanne-Claude have made it their signature, temporarily covering buildings, islands, and coastlines to call awareness. In 2005, they erected some 7,500 orange gates throughout the winterly Central Park, changing its environmental memory forever for those who visited and experienced the installation.
A line of visitors, including a group of Muslim school girls, await to climb up the stairs along the 180m (590 feet) high rock, a Sri Lanka UNESCO World Heritage site, to see the former Royal fortress on its top. If in ritual or tourism, forming a line and climbing are human archetypes loaded with symbolism.
Processions are a major element in religious rites. In this ritual pilgrimage, Maya elders and their community march from the town center to the ceremonial plaza out of town.
Artists Cristo and Jeanne-Claude have made it their signature, temporarily covering buildings, islands, and coastlines to call awareness. In 2005, they erected some 7,500 orange gates throughout the winterly Central Park, changing its environmental memory forever for those who visited and experienced the installation.