And we want to tell you how the selection was made, what led us and who was in the room.
What we won't tell you: who was chosen, and what projects were chosen - we'll leave that to the artists to reveal in their own time... :)
In the previous post, in the open call, we talked a bit about the importance of the central projects in our community: radical self-expression that is detached from the social norms we want to burn. In some interpretations, we come to Midburn initially to rebuild ourselves, bringing together the principles of community effort and participation to a climax.
In light of the uniqueness of the large community projects, the selection committee is different from the committee that deals with the general Art Fund grants. We rewrote the criteria for committee members selection in order to increase transparency and openness to a variety of voices and issued a call. A diverse group of people from the community gathered, with different views, and the debate began... :) Thanks to Assaf, Debi, Lily, Alon, Lev, Efrat, Yossi, Rani, Noa, Rachel and Tal.
We went through an intensive week-long process, hours of joint discourse around art, the ten principles, community, experience, culture, symbols but also time alone to think, at the end we chose one effigy, one temple.
Effigy - We received 3 amazing applications. It was difficult. What is an amazing application you ask? Concept, experience, feasibility, connection to the 10 principles and of course the visibility of the element. A lot of thought was put into all 3 applications and we want to thank the 3 teams for their willingness and effort.
As mentioned - one application surpassed all of them in its originality, in its artistic expression, in its connection to our culture and its theme. Just by watching the visualization the members of the committee felt a transformative experience and the project was chosen unanimously. We had an exciting meeting with the artist and his team. We felt the seriousness, dedication, professionalism, international experience and originality. We were excited along with them, we are already dying to see UNITY at the Playa. Good luck!
Temple - here the selection process was more philosophically complex, although the choice of the project was almost obvious. We talked for hours about the essence of the temple, rituals, non-sacred spiritual space and more. Here too, we discussed the concept with the artist, what the structure conveys, the internal gathering it invites and the journey on the way there. This is a temple that invites the whole community to take part, to come and play, to feel part of its construction and belonging to its rise and fall. It's going to be an amazing and inspiring temple and we wish the entire Midburn community the process of building a temple in light of the principle of Community Effort, while growing and transforming with each nail driven and that will be a center for the community that will help us take the culture and the organization in the right direction. Good luck!
In the attached links -
The criteria used by the committee.
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