A Czech Oasis in the American Desert

“Burning Man is something that you can not really explain,” said Michaela Rygrova, the Prague-based art designer who has led the effort to bring the ‘Czech Oasis’ from its Czech origins all the way around the globe. “It just happens to you. It started for me because I stumbled across these pictures in 2008 [of Burning Man]. These big, beautiful statues. For three days, I just looked at pictures and videos. It was unbelievable. I felt I had to go there.”

Since its foundation in the early 1990s, Burning Man has intrigued the imagination of all of those that have heard of it. Neither a simple description nor images can fully convey the now-famous flash community that swells to over 50,000 inhabitants throughout a week-long period beginning in the late August heat. Drawn to the effluence of creative energy, Rygrova ventured halfway around the world to experience the mix of designers, artists, engineers, and others with a panache guided by what can only be called a radical need for self-expression.

“After my first burn [in 2010], I completely fell in love with it,” said Rygrova. “I became kind of addicted to it. I kept coming back every year.”

She added, “I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole and suddenly being in Wonderland.”

After a few more trips, the result was an intense desire to not just bring Burning Man back to the Czech Republic, by becoming the event’s regional representative, but also bring the Czech Republic to Burning Man. However, that meant arriving with a structure worthy of being placed next to the impressive feats that many of the other craftsmen there would be constructing.

“I wanted to do a project there,” said Rygrova. “Last year, I joined the Lithuanian team and we were building [their project]. But I wanted to do something with Czech people, have a Czech project there.”

Up for the challenge, Kloda laid out and developed designs. They settled on the aforementioned tower of beer, which they agreed was an easy, if expected, introduction to the Czech people.

“The idea was [Rygrova’s], but I thought about it and it’s such a symbol of the Czech country,” said Kloda. 

Rygrova explained, “It’s a start, because you go abroad and so often all people know about the Czech Republic are Václav Havel, some ice hockey players, and beer. And beer everyone will enjoy.”

In return for the expended sweat and currency it will take them to arrive and build a structure, Burning Man offers an event that is built around inclusion and a self-contained community, with rules requiring that only a barter economy is accepted and everyone has to do their part to help the community sustain itself.

“Burning Man offers unique experiences for this country: a massive gathering wherein the audience/performer dichotomy is replaced by a dynamic of total participation and self-determination,” said Anthony Cristofani, a California native and PhD student who has regularly attended Burning Man as well. “That, along with the low-key security, absence of hierarchical control and profit, and the replacement of money with gift-giving, makes it like a little taste of socialism in the desert!”

In a way, everyone finds their own reason to be at Burning Man, whether radical self-expression or radical politics. Both Rygrova and Kloda agree that because of this freedom, it is important for Czechs to not only attempt to attend Burning Man, but also ensure a presence by the Czech Republic.