The Pilgrims is an art environment and installation, a sacred space for personal reflection created collaboratively between Kurt D. Peterson and Ella Wijt. It was created in October 2020 after the first 7 months of quarantine and became one of 3 site specific installations for Peterson and Wijt’s duo show, Doorways of Mercy, at Rumah Tangga in Depok.

For Peterson and Wijt, The Pilgrims grows out of a mutual interest in mythologies and what lies on the fringes of the sacred. They share the notion that what is sacred is not just that which “lifts us higher and higher” or that which holds us infinitely shining above the darkness. “The sacred” is a process of reflection in all conditions, and it is through this reflection that we find resilience. We cannot always change the world around us, but we can develop this sense of the sacred inside of ourselves to carry us through all things. Peterson and Wijt believe that this kind of storytelling is at the heart of the whole history of both art and the sacred alike, and that art is a tool for the progress of our consciousness.