Gerald Fox’s documentary on the city of energy-hungry transience for eco-themed art in the Nevada desert already looks like a postcard of the time
Last game change August 20, 2020 16.02 BST
If the other Mad Max folks have ever controlled a little break from the blues of post-apocalyptic life at a festival, it might seem a bit like Burning Man, the summer solstice hippie birthday party held every year at the Nevada desert. The Gerald Fox documentary shows how organizers impressively build a city for 70,000 more people from scratch in 18 days. It’s a behind-the-scenes look without much history or context; In fact, no voice has been uttered on the fact that Burning Man’s countercultural references may disappear in the smoke as it becomes yet another destination on the global festival scene, a stunning backdrop for a sunny selfie from celebrities.
The film focuses on a handful of artists installing their works on a giant scale in the desert.London-based French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani is commissioned to design the festival temple, creating an astonishing crisscrossed structure resembling the erupting Eiffel Tower on a volcano.Refreshingly, the backyard seems to have a gender balance: an equivalent number of women and men (but with a considerable contingent of old star-studded types with handkerchiefs that look like veteran roadies to Keith Richards).
Art itself is pleasantly elegant and not very ironic, the kind that would be despised and despised in the art world.Artist, ignoring the theme of festival robots, makes a jellyfish the size of a bus with colorful recycled ashtrays; others build a mortuary climbing framework with abandoned cars.The documentary was shot in 2018 and to see it now looks like a postcard from another era, not only for the coronavirus, but also, perhaps, for the feeling that tens of thousands of people are flying at wonderful distances towards an energy of transitority.-hungry city. Eco-thematic art is becoming less sustainable.