The theme of Ksenia's project is "Should the Sacred Be Accessible to Everyone? Pilgrimage, Tourism, and Spiritual Entrepreneurs in the "Places of Power" of Post-Soviet Russia."
The goal is to study microeconomic relations and infrastructure in places of power, as well as discussions of various New Age groups and local residents, local cultural, tourism and environmental figures about sacredness and commercialization/tourism/museumification, about the proper and improper use of a place of power and about interaction with transcendental agents (spirits, gods, aliens, etc.) that inhabit it.
The project is designed for a year, consists of two stages and includes several expeditions to various sites:
- to Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, from where pilgrims go to Svetloyar
- to the Uimon Valley and to the mountainous region to the southeast of the Uimon Valley to the Katunsky Range in the Altai Mountains
- to Novosibirsk and, if necessary, to other cities, from where pilgrims travel to the Uimon Valley.
- to Gelendzhik and Sochi, from where pilgrims go to the dolmens of the Caucasus.
For more details about the project's objectives and expected outcomes, visit the Khamovniki Foundation website. Meanwhile, we congratulate Ksenia and wish her confirmed hypotheses and fascinating findings!