Annually at the end of summer, thousands of people from all over the planet, craving freedom, detachment, and enjoyment of art, gather in the Black Rock Desert (Nevada, USA) at the world-famous Burning Man festival. Traditionally, the celebration starts exactly at 00:01 on the last Monday of August and continues for eight days - until the first Monday of September when Labor Day is celebrated in the USA. In 2019, it took place from August 25 to September 2.
Features of the festival
The Burning Man festival is a real tent city for 70 thousand people and grows, literally, out of nowhere. Many creative people, designers, artists, architects, musicians, and just freaks strive to get here. Although it is not so easy to do. Tickets sell out long before the start of the festival, despite their high cost (in 2019 the price ranged around 28-92 thousand rubles). Such excitement is explained by the main principle of the festival – freedom of self-expression.
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| Freedom of self-expression is manifested in various bright costumes |
The festival began back in 1986. It's hard to imagine, but such a large-scale event grew out of a tiny gathering for 20 people. That day, several creative friends crafted and symbolically burned a small wooden effigy on one of the beaches of San Francisco. This ritual became the highlight of subsequent gatherings and was reflected in the name of the festival – “Burning Man”. In different years, the wooden statue reached various scales up to 30 m in height. Each time the number of participants grew and has long exceeded tens of thousands.
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The large-scale Burning Man festival is visible from space |
By the way, any monetary relations between participants are prohibited at the festival. At the same time, barter and mutual assistance flourish. Art objects, installations, and other creative madness are created here by guests at their own expense. What is very important is that after the event the desert returns to its pristine state. Since 1998, the festivals have become thematic. For example, last year the main theme was robots, this year – “Metamorphoses”. The organizers defined the theme as “a celebration of change and an exploration of uncertainty”.
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Metamorphoses |
The Main Principles of the Festival
The idea of the festival is based on its 10 principles. Many of them resonate with modern trends in the world and society:
- radical inclusion – everyone is an active participant;
- gifting and decommodification – no money at the event;
- self-reliance and self-expression – any manifestation of creative “self” and individuality is welcomed, if it does not violate the boundaries of others;
- communal effort, responsibility – each participant here becomes part of a big family, albeit briefly, and everyone must be responsible for themselves and their actions;
- leave no trace – protection of the environment from human impact, essentially it is the most environmentally friendly festival;
- participation – everyone can become part of Burning Man;
- here and now – every day is priceless, it is important to be able to enjoy it.
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In the center of the town, an empty square is left for art objects |
In the center of the town, an empty square is left for art objects, installations, and performances. The rest of the participants express themselves through their fantastic costumes. On the last day, a wooden statue of a man is burned – a truly exciting spectacle, the culmination of the whole event.
Art objects and huge bizarre sculptures in the middle of the desert attract everyone's attention. They surprise, impress, make you think, smile, or feel sad. Let's together with us transport ourselves to Nevada and look at the most striking installations of this year.
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Art objects and huge bizarre sculptures in the middle of the desert |
What surprised at Burning Man – 2019
Every year at the Burning Man festival, huge art objects and installations grow. For large projects, the organizers often allocate money. Participants bring smaller artworks with them. After completion, they disappear without a trace, leaving no traces (some are burned, the rest are dismantled and taken away).
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“Little Butterfly” (Mariposita) by designer Chris Karnabuchi – a 26-foot sculpture made of curved wood. It depicts a female figure emerging from a semicircular enclosure that resembles a hatched egg. It symbolizes awakening and rebirth, emergence from confinement, a breakthrough to a new life.
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“Little Butterfly” (Mariposita) |
"Stone 27" – an installation by Benjamin Langholz, consisting of 27 boulders each weighing over 400 kg. They form a stepped path that rises up to 6 meters and then descends again, closing the circle. All stones are secured with cables and are suspended. Anyone can walk on the boulders.
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| "Stone 27" |
"ILY" by Dan Mountain – a huge hand assembled from various scrap metal. The designer equipped it with special mechanisms that allow the fingers to move.
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| "ILY" by Dan Mountain |
"The Folly" by Dave Keane – an entire art structure consisting of a clock tower, "residential" houses with observation decks. They are all connected in the center. Anyone can walk around this object.
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| "The Folly" |
"Temple of Direction" by J. Van Der Bosch – a wooden pavilion with four gates, each facing the entrances to the festival town. They resemble torii gates found in Japanese temples.
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| "Temple of Direction" |
"Desert Wave" – 500 LED bulbs of various colors suspended from a steel frame, forming a wave-like shape. It looks especially striking at sunset.
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| "Desert Wave" |
"Sacred Grounds" by Michael Benisty – one of the brightest shiny sculptures at the festival. It depicts a statue of a woman merged with nature. Like a tree, she stretches her branch-arms to the sky, and her root-legs go into the ground. The sky, sun, and sandy beach are incredibly beautifully reflected in the object.
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| "Sacred Grounds" |
"#Slonik" by Mikhail Tsaturyan – the Russian artist and designer presented a huge salad-green inflatable elephant whose trunk reached upward. This object stood out brightly against the desert landscapes.
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| Slonik |
"PlayAlchemist Pyramid" by Svetlana and Valery Korshunov – an art object that displayed media installations of the ARTEFACT project, as well as works by Ukrainian artists.
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| PlayAlchemist Pyramid |
"The Man" by David Best – one of the central figures that traditionally stands in the center and is burned on the last day. The permanent author of this sculpture for many years was Larry Harvey (who passed away last year).
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| "The Man" by David Best – one of the central figures |
Burning Man is often visited by celebrities: musicians, hosts, bloggers. This year, among the participants from our celebrities were writer Irina Khakamada and popular singer Monetochka.
Perhaps you, together with the team of the Aventura event agency, will one day attend this celebration of life and art. In the meantime, we are just as actively "rocking" here, while keeping up with world events and drawing inspiration from the best ideas.
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