Artists Strike Burning Man, Founding Freedom of Speech Zone Outside Event

In an ironic twist to a counter-culture event claiming self-expression as a tenet, two artists picketed Burning Man armed with 2000 fliers and three signs, unexpectedly founding the Freedom of Speech Zone outside the festival.

[ClickPress, Sun Aug 31 2008] In an ironic twist to a counter-culture event claiming self-expression as a tenet, two artists picketed Burning Man for two days during the festival. Armed with 2000 fliers and holding three picket signs reading “Art on Strike,” “B.M.L.L.C. Hard On Art,” and “Brush Your Teeth,” Petaluma artists Mark Grieve and Ilana Spector set out to question the event’s grant structure. By picketing Burning Man, they unexpectedly founded the Freedom of Speech Zone outside the festival.

“The Bureau of Land Management didn’t know what to do with us; Burning Man didn’t know what to do with us, so the government, adhering to legal precedent, established the zone for us,” said Spector.

The name of the performance is “An Exercise in Democracy – for Under 500 Bucks.” It is a response to the event’s theme, “The American Dream,” as well as to the election year. “The piece started as an attempt to see if the democratic process could work in this ‘experimental’ society,” explained Grieve. “The lessons we learned, however, went way beyond the Black Rock desert. The performance became an exercise in first amendment rights of speech, assembly and petition and our direct relationship to the democratic process. We learned how key the law enforcement and public officials were in protecting our civil liberties,” said the artists.

Grieve has a 12-year history building art projects in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. He led a crew of over 70 people to build both the “The Temple of Dreams” in 2005, “The Temple of Hope” in 2006 at Burning Man. With Spector, a lawyer-turned artist, Grieve built “Bike Arch” as well as other public junk bike-related art for the City of Ventura, CA and the City of San Rafael, CA. Most recently in July, they hosted “THE PIG,” a five-star seven-course dinner collaboration between Grieve/Spector and artist/chef Alex Steneck. (see www.MarkGrieve.com.)

“We have yet to see if our original intentions worked. But we feel great about the unexpected successes we have already achieved,” surmised the artists.

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