The intention of the series Pilgrimage, has been to invert the tourist gaze at two of the most visited sites In the Eastern and Western world: The Taj Mahal in India, and St Peter’s Basilica in Italy. The buildings are described not by their architecture, but rather by the tourists visiting them, and all identifying context has been excluded from these two endlessly reproduced landmarks. A queue is a procession, partly of national identity and demographics, and partly of dress code and body language. It is a temporary community, whereby a collective spirit of anticipation exists in between the boredom of waiting. Strangers have one thing in common: they are all waiting for the same thing. With over one billion international tourists travelling each year, contemporary society is a mobile society, and the modern day tourist can be described as a contemporary pilgrim.
