Shrine of Lost Moments 2022
The original Shrine of Lost Moments was tragically inspired by a terrorist attack at a Berlin Christmas Market. It deeply reminded how quickly and out of nothing we can loose everything. For the central shrines at Burning Man 2017, and as solo-piece at AfrikaBurn 2018 we created a place to remember those moments, how we lost them, helped to accept that loss and go through a metamorphosis and be truly ready for new love. In those years many contributed to the creation of the first shrines, from the first idea in Stockholm, ideation of the tree, the handpainted remembrance pieces, the first ritual around the shrine, the texts for these steps and the symbols.
Since then a lot has happened and especially the pandemic led to even more loss of moments. Sometimes only moments were we could see each other, like at Nowhere. But also for some the tragic loss of a loved one. The different lockdowns confined us to our own little spaces and it got hard to see that together we are still more. This is reflected by the centerpiece for the Shrine this year. It's hexagonal shapes reminds of our little lockdown-cells, and the illumination that transcends these cells represent the community that was and is always there.
It was (and is) a time for deep reflection and we thought more about our ritual of love, loss, redemption and metamorphosis. Love is (hopefully) a long phase and loss is a disruption of it, which sometimes just takes seconds. To truely heal we need to give ourselves time to heal and grief, only then we can reach acceptance of the loss happened. Without accepting there will always be an unforgiven scar on our souls, so it is really important. Only then we can continue and grow back to ourselves or maybe a different version of ourselves. A Version that reaches Metamorphosis and is deeply ready for new love.
Some other planned extensions are remembrance pieces for people visiting where one part can be taken home and the other part stays at the shrine. All collected pieces will then later be brought to the TempleBurn at Burning Man this year (if there is no fire) or burned after the main burn at smaller burns.
Work in Progress
The Shrine of Lost Moments at Nowhere 2022
Hexagon is the bestagon! And we hope that we could inspire some people with deep thoughts to process loss and always see the light at the end of the tunnel. A tunnel that seems like a circle, but is not, it’s a spiral. With each round we keep growing. And while as teenagers we do rounds probably a couple times a week, it’s important to remember as we grow older, and might feel stuck in a never ending phase of grieving, it will end for sure. It just takes more time, as the love was more profound and the loss did cut a lot deeper too.
Another aspect that is important to us: please do not forget our friends in Ukraine. It’s not just them that are attacked. We are attacked, the very thing we as burners just did in desert. The radical inclusion, the radical self expression, our personal freedom to be ourselves, and everything that is our culture.
To remember this, the shrine switched every 15 minutes to the Ukrainian colors for ~ 137 seconds, representing 137 days and those seconds already felt long…..
