Ron Tecson Post# 15 "Sacred place that moves" 4/21

I was reading an article from Mobilities Journal entitled Taking Sacred Space out of Place: From Mount Sinai to Mount Getty Through Travelling Icons. It is about Dr. Veronica Della Dora who was pursuing her postdoctoral research at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles when she was asked by the Museum if she could assist in the translation of precious sacred Greek objects that the museum was about to showcase. By witnessing and being an active participant in the behind-the-scenes tour of these sacred objects, Della Dora hypothesized that Sacred Places could be circulated through material objects. In her article, she was able to destabilize traditional notions of sacred space as an immovable entity. She depicted icons and other ‘travelling’ sacred objects as vehicles for the circulation and displacement of holy places outside of their physical boundaries. Della Dora suggested that we need to conceptualize sacred space not as an immobile place but to pay attention to the product between human and non-human (sacred things) interaction, where according to Della Dora relies the successful transfer of one 'sacred place' to a different location.