Graphic Design students travel to Marseille: uncovering sacredness

The exploration of the sacred is about how to speak about the sacred beyond religion, how to name the ineffable, and how to stay open to what moves or transforms us without dogma. Marseille, a city marked by migration, multilingualism, and layered spiritualities, offered a fertile ground. Here, sacredness appears not in single traditions but in gestures, memories, and practices that resist colonial framing. The decolonial approach was strengthened by the presence of two Mexican tutors, whose perspectives appeared throughout lectures, conversations, workshops, and a final communal cooking session.

The week opened with two days of lectures. Maarten Cornel revisited the origins of the project and invited students to consider their own questions about spirituality. Mona Schieren introduced the spiritual practices of artist Lygia Clark, and students examined sacred objects from various cultures, asking what makes an object sacred and whether one can create a personal sacred object. Discussions evolved into visual dialogues. Emilia Kaspar (third-year student Graphic Design): “In a week, we uncovered sacred meaning in community, in difference, and in the rituals we made together.”

Beaux Arts, located beside the Luminy nature park, provided inspiring surroundings. A walk to the Belvedere above the Mediterranean, near the prehistoric Cosquer Cave, offered a poetic moment of reflection. Another poetry session took place outside Saint Victor, drawing in passersby, including local sanitation workers. A city day brought students to Marseille’s sacred sites: Saint Victor Abbey, Notre-Dame de la Garde, Fort Saint Jean, and the Cosquer Grotto.

Erik Tlaseca’s workshop culminated in three group performances: a drawing action involving all participants, a collective sound composition, and a prayer-like exchange of personal objects. The week concluded with a shared sense of connection, to one another, to ancestors, and to the wider world. In a time of polarisation, students and tutors alike sought ways to navigate the present through art, poetry, spirituality, and curiosity. Jakob Blessing ( second-year student Graphic Design) upon return : “Everyone who went to Marseille has a twinkle in their eye in our department.”

The Sacred Project is an initiative flowing from The Big Dialogue sessions at KABK (2021-2023). The project is embraced, designed and created by the following academies: Beaux Arts de Marseille (Elias Kurdy & Adriana Lara), Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo (Luca Pulvirenti) & Graphic Design Department Royal Academy of Art The Hague (Maarten Cornel & Ingrid Grünwald). From 4 to 8 May 2026 the final and third part of our Sacred Project will take place in Palermo. To be continued.