Axis Mundi, Black Rock City 2026
Confessional Alter: Demoop du Soul
Jacob Hanshaw and Looking Up Arts — San Francisco, CA, United States
Open PlayaHonorariumBay Area, this year
About
An art nouveau altar-shaped circus wagon containing three confessional booths and a reflection area intended to provide a space for vulnerability, connection, and self-reconciliation outside of any authority structures. Confessors are given the option to speak directly or anonymously through an AI proxy which rephrases (for instance as a pirate or in haiku) and inevitably distorts communication, raising the question of how much is gained and lost in digital encounters. The absurdity or frustration of the AI may drive them to drop the veil of the artificial for a heart-to-heart connection or they may find joy in the play of a pirate haiku telephone game of soul searching in an ornate circus wagon in the middle of a desert.
Compiled from Burning Man Project’s public art listing. Not affiliated with, endorsed, or verified by Burning Man Project.