We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further:it may be
Beyond that last blue mountainbarred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea […].
– James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915).
Where to start a project?
The moment of starting the project may be a response to an offer, realising a request from a client or a person in charge, or may be a result of an appearance of an idea worth implementing. The latter inspires my own activities. My projects are founded on my major professions, archaeology and history of art, and are usually realised by study trips I take to places, which went down in history as universal genius loci, to explore, touch, experience and write down my own conclusions, based on both, the material evidence and emotions accompanying me on site. I travel along sacred path followed by Christians throughout ages, and marked with their monuments and legends. Yet, sometimes, the road leads me to more ancient corners of the past. In all instances, I am a “migrating historian of art on the sacred ways”, as one of the authors of the documentary book, edited by Ivan Foletti, et al. (2018, Migrating Art Historians on the Sacred Ways. Brno & Viella, Roma: Masaryk University).
Each stage of my journey requires gathering a group of people with various qualities and of different professions, who will control the progress of work. Sometimes, they are archaeologists , historians of art and writes, like myself, but many a time, in the group, there are also specialists in photography, filming and recording who take care of visual effects of the project. In any case, I am sourrounded by good souls, my companions. You will meet them all on the way, by my side, while we are looking for eternal realms and landscapes filled with numen, where manmade wonders merged with the grandeur of nature.
See you on the way ….