Sneak Peek At Burning Man Art 2015: Legendary Festival Begins This Week
Set to begin August 30, the 2015 Burning Man art festival will run through September 7. Named for the huge totem set on fire on the last night of the festival, the Burning Man festival began in San Francisco in 1986 and was moved to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert once the number of attendees grew to be too many for Burning Man to be held safely in the city. Larry Harvey and Jerry James are the creators of the annual event.
The mantra of the Burning Man art festival is found on the website’s home page.
“A city in the desert. A culture of possibility. A network of dreamers and doers.”
According to International Business Times, anything goes out in the desert during the Burning Man art festival, with creative expression and “radical inclusion” encouraged. Due to the large number of people who attend the art festival, law enforcement has faced some difficulty in keeping order.
“We don’t have the personnel to issue citations to 70,000 naked people on the playa, but we will be upholding the law to the best of our ability,” Jerry Allen, Nevada’s Pershing County Sheriff, told the Associated Press.
Burning Man spokesperson Jim Graham said, “We’ve been working with (Allen) since his election, and he’s been involved with all of the large coordination efforts. It’s an ongoing process on education, but he hasn’t been out there for a few years, so he hasn’t seen the progress we’ve made in recent years.”
Though this is Allen’s first year as sheriff during the Burning Man art event, he believes it will be a problem-free week. Burning Man festival organizers also said they’re cooperating with the sheriff and don’t anticipate any issues.
As a matter of fact, one of the ten principles includes civic responsibility in which community members are expected to uphold the law. The remaining nine principles are radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.
One of the most popular art pieces of the Burning Man event over the years was the enormous wooden couple embracing from last year’s festival. The art installation was created by artists Kevan Christiaens, Kelsey Owens, Bill Tubman, Joe Olivier, Matt Schultz, and the Pier Group.
The Heads of #Embrace @burningman (2014) by @Android_Jones #epic #sculpture #MindBlown http://t.co/qM7z5Ce6H4 pic.twitter.com/7BMT7LDomw
— [sic] (@_sic_) September 26, 2014
For this year’s Burning Man festival, one of the art installations includes a piece called “Becoming Human”– a 30-foot tall sculpture of a robot which occasionally smells the flower in its right hand. Created by Christian Ristow from El Prado, New Mexico, the work of art “hopes to inspire viewers to ask questions about technology and nature, and the value of slowing down,” according to the Burning Man website.
Other art attractions at the Burning Man festival include an interactive carnival, a giant kaleidoscope, a hall of mirrors arcade, fire Tetris (the game will be played on a board that’s larger than life), Charnival (an exhibit made up of rides and games designed to mimic Coney Island), and a funhouse maze structure.
These art exhibits are just a handful of what’s coming up for those planning to flock to the Burning Man festival. Are you ready to go?
[Photo by David McNew/Getty Images]
