“Renaixement” from Burning Man 2016 pays tribute to its fiery cultural roots

Set in the vast dusty landscape of Nevada's Black Rock Desert, “Renaixement” was a special public art installation exhibited at this year's Burning Man festival. A team led by artists Miguel Arraiz and David Moreno of pink intruder designed the latticed golden cube, which incorporates traditional elements from the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain. And despite its shiny metallic appearance, the cube is completely made out of cardboard so that, per Burning Man tradition, the structure could be “burned in a clean way”.

Arrais and Moreno are no strangers to creating elaborate cardboard cubes with ornate mosaic floors. Last year, they built a similar structure called EKKLESÍA for Fallas, the annual spring festival in Valencia, Spain. 

Read on for more about the project. You can also see it in action in a video below.

In reference to the recent cultural debate between tradition and artistic modernity in the designers' hometown of Valencia, “Renaixement” (or Renaissance) reinterprets the “grotesque decorations” from the 15th-century Valencia Silk Market, a UNESCO Heritage building that is one of the most significant medieval secular buildings in Europe. 

“[The Silk Market] is adorned with many grotesque scenes and obscene figures [which] was how people [were] facing against [a] powerful church,” the designers write. “That spirit that Valencia people has to face against power is part of our culture and the main reason of Fallas. To make fun of power.”

The cube is built over an eye-popping wooden mosaic floor made of 25,321 pieces and was collectively assembled by local community groups. “[Neither] tradition nor the experimentation have a future without communal effort.”

Renaixement's geometric forms and sculpture techniques are drawn from the techniques used to build the EKKLESÍA project at last year's Fallas festival. Once visitors step inside the cube, they become part of an art installation “that mixes the contemporary language of the latticed architecture of the pavilion with the cardboard pieces and molds of a traditional Fallas guild”.

Project credits

Lead artists: Miguel Arraiz, David Moreno
Collaborators: Radiante, ARAE Patrimonio, Asociacion Cultural Cronista, Retales
Client and sponsors: supported in part by a grant from Burning Man.
Sponsors: ajuntament Valencia, diputacion Valencia, Agencia Valenciana Turismo, Culturarts, Ajuntament Torrent, Alpesa, Ideo
Photography: Noel Arraiz

Below is a video and more photos of the installation. Learn more about the project from pink intruder.

All photos courtesy of Pink Intruder.