Pilgrims on Gotland

'Pilgrims on Gotland' is a board game where you are invited to 'walk' on the most Swedish tourist island overcoming problems and living unique experiences. You can visit historical places, Medieval churches and other locations of tourist interest on the island. Depending on your choices during the trip, you will become a pilgrim eager for spiritual experiences or a tourist interested in the playful pleasure of travel. If you are the player who manages to overcome the greatest number of challenges, you will win the game.

I am a multidisciplinary artist who uses the act of walking as a method for artistic production. Gotland is the site where I’ve been working and developing my art practice in recent years. With the support of Brucebo grant, I explored the island, mainly by foot, for three months in summer 2016. Through an inquiring process, I reached the social capital of Gotland through contacting local people and cultural, religious institutions. This allowed me to do a project by riding a horse on a local pilgrimage and organize a three-week walk, Apostlahästar på Gotland (2017), which used the island’s Medieval churches as landmarks along the way. As a pilgrim community, participants relied on local hospitality who provided free food and accomodation.

As a follow up, I’ve created ’Pilgrims on Gotland’, a board game with Gotland’s map as a participatory-art object, based on my experience as a pilgrim and walking artist, designed and developed in the course The Photographic Artist’s Book (21/22) at KKH. The UK-based curator Monserrat Pis invited me to show the game for the art exhibition ‘Camiños Creativos’ in Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in November.

Juanma González

juanmagonzalez.com

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