Paper Short Abstract:

In this paper I will discuss how creating visual materials as methodological approach can help us understand and capture the transformations of the pilgrimage site, the translocations of the particular objects, and the creation of new elements in the pilgrimage landscape.

Paper Abstract:

During my ethnographic research of pilgrimage sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina I visited the same sites for years. Every time I visited a particular site, I was taking photographs and making videos. However, at that time I did not realise that what I was doing is actually creating photos of “pilgrimage site life”, and recording another transformations that Bosnian Croat pilgrimages will go through. After the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995) and revival of pilgrimages after Communist period (1945-1991), pilgrimages as arenas for performing religious identities became equally important symbols of national identity in a war-torn country where diverse religious and national communities are in constant competition and contestation. One of the manifestations of these competitions are the re-construction and construction of religious architecture i. e. pilgrimage landscapes that are intended to mark the space of the religious and national community.

What I was following, then, was the creation of new sedimentations of time (Hayden and Katić 2023). However, I only realised this by looking at the visual materials I created over the years. Researching and visiting the same sites every year I captured the transformations of the site, the translocations of the particular objects and the creation of new elements in the pilgrimage landscape. Taking the example of the Kondžilo pilgrimage site in northern Bosnia I will discuss how creating visual materials as methodological approach can help us understand the life cycle of a pilgrimage site but also a life of one community, in this case Bosnian Croats.