The New Pilgrims
(excerpt)A paradigmatic case is that of the Swiss artist Marinka Limat. In the summer of 2013, she undertook a walk from her hometown of Fribourg to the artistic capital of Berlin. During this 1,100 km journey, the artist stopped at over fifty artistic institutions to be blessed “in the name of art.” After her initial performance, Limat has undertaken other artistic pilgrimages (Kunstpilgerreisen), the latest of which involved crossing more than nine countries on foot to connect Kassel and Athens, the two host cities of Documenta 14.
Although undoubtedly her example is a radical display of creativity and irony, Limat is one of many pilgrims who have ended up congregating in the artistic temples of the German capital. From various points across Europe, we converge here, in a city that was semi-empty two decades ago and now faces an unstoppable and violent process of gentrification, in a language so complex that it always reveals our status as foreigners, as Wahlberliner and Wahlberlinerinnen. What is the reason for this massive contemporary pilgrimage? It is nothing other than the secular, and often precarious, search for artistic professionalization.