So, how permanent are all of our built works?  How long should their lives be in order for them to make a lasting impact?  How important are codes at certain events?  How much do said codes impair our creativity?  Which drugs should one possibly do in order to fully appreciate such a spectacle, or are none required at all?  When I read about this, all I could think about were the fallas (SP?  It’s Spanish for having a parade where the floats are set up around the town instead of actually parading, then setting them on fire, then going crazy and yelling disgusting profanities at the firemen and then running across the hot ashes, or at least that is all I remember, I was only 19 and very impressionable…) in Spain when I lived there – the most amazing thing I had ever seen, and at the time, I knew it could never happen in America, except perhaps in New Orleans, which is like its own country (though still in dire straights – don’t forget to keep donating since there has not been a whole lot of help given to our friends in Louisiana).  However, this is before I knew about Burning Man.  

File this one under "uncategorized."  You know, I just don’t know how to title this one.  Before I saw The Uchronians website , all I really knew about Burning Man I learned from watching Reno 911!.  However, I just had to share the process, the built result, and the process of burning the built result with you.  The Uchronian website pretty much speaks for itself, and I’m pretty out of my element even trying, so just go link on over.  There’s some great video at the link, and Drew passed along a few stills to share – I’ll post all of them at flickr for you to see.  I’m sure it does not even come the slightest bit close to the feeling of being there.

Here’s the whole story in a letter from the Burning Man Art Curator Christine Kristen aka LadyBee…
 
"The Belgians sent us a grant proposal last winter, but the cost was prohibitive, and we didn’t fund it. Later in the spring three of the group members came to the office and presented their project to us. They told us it was being funded by a guy named Jan Kriekels, who had come to Burning Man in 2005, loved it, and wanted to create an installation. We went over basic logistics, and then  didn’t hear much from them. They ordered a huge amount of tickets and they arrived on the playa on the first day possible, August 14, and started building.

Here’s the story that was told to me by Arne Quinze, the project designer. (Arne and Jan met a year or two ago and decided to use some of their business profits to fund community based art projects).

Arne was a high school dropout who lived in the streets for a while, stealing food and falling under the influence of an older Hell’s Angels guy, who got him into serious drugs and street crime. After a short stay in a local jail, Arne decided to start a design business and got loans from the Belgian government to do so. He invented a foam product with the texture of human skin, in many colors, that is hugely popular. He is not a trained architect or designer and does not use CAD or any computer programs to do his designs – just draws them. He has become very successful and if you look at his website  – you’ll see the range of work he does – interiors, furniture, graphics, on and on. You can see the foam product in some of the furniture. So he’s a 34-year old tattoo covered freak who has managed to become one of the most popular designers in Europe. He’s been selected to be the artist of the year at the upcoming Basel-Miami Art Fair. He believes in chaos theory, community, and collaboration, and he and Jan do these sorts of art projects all over the world, once or twice a year.

Here’s a bit about Arne.

Jan Kriekels studied anthropology and he told me that his basic life question is: What truly makes people happy? One thing is warmth – hence he started a radiator business,which features literally thousands of designs, as all of his employees get to design radiators and all are put into production.  Jan does not believe in top-down management, and empowers his staff to create designs and to work on projects like the Message Out of the Future, as well as many others: see http://www.theradiatorfactory.com/experience/ . Half of the Belgian group on the playa were factory workers, all on their usual at-home salary, and the other half were artists, designers, sales people, photographers, etc. Jan wanted to put everyone together in this situation to foster collaboration and community. He and Arne believe in what they call " the creative economy" where every person is empowered to create.

So Jan and Arne financed the whole project. In addition to the Message Out of the Future installation, they are creating 50,000 full-length books on the project, each of which will contain a DVD of the film made at the event. They are gifting these books to their creative contacts worldwide, in an effort to promote the creative economy. We expect to see many more European participants next year because of this. You’ll note that no corporate logos, URL’s, or any mention of these two companies was made on the playa, nor are their businesses promoted in the project website . This is truly a gift to Burning Man as well as to all of the Belgians who participated in the project. Their mission is identical to that of Burning Man: creating community through art-making. And yes, the wood they used was low-quality Canadian wood destined for recycling, and they had an adequate burn platform. The extra wood has been donated to Burners Without Borders and will be used to build housing for homeless people in Reno.

I hope many of you had a chance to visit their camp, where there were nightly dinners, films and music. They worked tirelessly but welcomed everyone to their camp and seemed to love Burning Man. Wish all corporate moguls had their vision!!!
 
 
 
 Christine Kristen aka LadyBee
 Art Curator, Burning Man "