Building by burning? Ephemeral art and permanent community at Burning Man

Abstract

The Burning Man festival started in 1986 with a spontaneous moment of “shared togetherness” sparked by the burning of an eight-foot wooden man on Baker Beach. First set against the countercultural backdrop of San Francisco, the event now gathers 70,000 inhabitants for one week at an ephemeral city in the Nevada desert for “an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance” (Burning Man Project, “The Event”).

Black Rock City is impermanent: much of its art is burnt to the ground, its 70,000 inhabitants disperse back to their homes around the globe after the burn, and the city leaves no trace. Yet community, with its emphasis on stability, permanence, and strong ties, is one of its structuring principles. How can transience and community work together?

This paper will explore how community is imagined, structured and fostered in this temporary city. It will examine what forms of “art” are present in the city, and interrogate the role of temporary art and artistic encounters in the construction of a community. It will focus on the roles of participatory experience and maker culture, and suggest that the building of the city by all the participants, this “making together” is perhaps the most valuable form of art created at Burning Man – the art of living together which binds people together and creates a community. It will conclude by looking at how this community-oriented event has turned into a global non-profit organization which supports over a hundred regional events worldwide, and which encourages the development of local communities through that of the “imagined community” of Burners.