“Change is inevitable. Change is constant,” as Benjamin Disraeli said, standing on the shoulders of Heraclitus. We at the Flux Foundation embrace this knowledge as we create the Temple for Burning Man 2010.
The Burning Man Temple is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. It is an institution dedicated to remembrance, catharsis, and rebirth – an essential place of memorial for the over 45,000 participants who attend Burning Man every year. This year, it will also be dedicated to change.
This year’s temple, The Temple of Flux, is being built in West Oakland at American Steel by a newly formed group of artists, the Flux Foundation, led by three established artists specializing in large-scale sculptures, Rebecca Anders, Jess Hobbs, and Peter Kimmelman. The Flux Foundation is a collaboration of many Bay Area communities, including the Flaming Lotus Girls, the SpaceCowboys, the Department of Spontaneous Combustion, Burning Man’s Department of Public Works, the Deep End/Distrikt, House of Lotus, Neuroweapon and so many others. We are carpenters, artists, metal workers, machinists, pyrotechnicians, and a vast array of other individuals from the Bay Area and beyond. We have a huge range of experience and backgrounds, with one unfying vision: Creating awe-inspiring, memorable art that emerges from the community and inspires change.
We draw from a pool of talent and experience that is unique in the Temple’s history, and for the first time ever, the project is being lead primarily by women. It is our deepest desire to empower women, in the traditionally male-dominated field of large-scale art, by creating a supportive hands-on educational environment for all genders. Our aim with this project is to foster growth and opportunity for anyone who wants to create art. In addition to directly engaging individual volunteers in the Temple of Flux, a team of committed documentarians are walking with us on this path, recording each step of our journey and sharing it with the rest of the world.
What is the Flux Foundation?
The Flux Foundation’s mission extends far beyond the creation of this year’s Temple. The Temple may burn, but our foundation is a platform for the future. We are committed to engaging people in large-scale art projects, helping anyone who wants to gain skills and build art in a supportive, collaborative, hands-on environment. The Temple is the first test of our collective abilities, but we cannot do it alone.
How Can You Help?
We need your support to make the Temple a reality. We received a generous starting grant from the Burning Man organization to create the Temple, but it’s our responsibility to raise the rest of the funds needed make this Temple a reality. We still need to raise about $30,000 over the next two months. We need your help to do this. This Temple is for all of us, and we need you to make it happen.
And where does your money go when you pledge to us? Well, we’ll tell you:
Why Does It Matter?
It may seem a bit extravagant to ask for money for a piece of temporal art in the midst of a crumbling economy, but this is more than the end result. When the Temple of Flux burns, over 250 people will have come together to build, learn, exchange ideas, and create a sacred space together. Can you really put a price on that? Now more than ever we must embrace the things that give us strength, hope, and inspiration. The purpose of art, as Picasso said, “is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” Rather than bend to circumstance, we believe in rising above and aspiring to new heights.
With your help, the Flux Foundation can not only make the Temple of Flux a reality, we can build a foundation for a thriving art organization dedicated to openness, inclusiveness, and teaching. Your donation does so much more than buy lumber; it allows us to lay the groundwork for a vibrant artists’ community that will continue to grow and blossom long after the last ashes of the Temple of Flux have blown away in the wind.
