Welcome Home!

“It’s heaven. It’s hell.” ─ ─ the description of a friend many years ago, carved a utopian impression of Burning Man in my heart. Years later, when I was fortunate enough to enter Black Rock City, I realized that the playa could not be defined, nor should it be defined. Any attempt at interpretation would have to laugh at itself. The virgin bell, the ten principles, the “Welcome Home” hug, the playa magic… What exactly were we burners, who traveled from East Asia to the dust, to build a camp and to burn it down, looking for? Why to risk everything to have this “home,” and how to return to that “home” in the default world? What exactly were we escaping from, or saying goodbye to? Would we survive everything we had loved and hated between these homes? Let us bury a time capsule here.

「那裡是天堂，也是地獄」──多年前朋友的描述，在我心中刻下Burning Man（火人）烏托邦印象。爾後有幸真正進入黑石城，才發覺那世界無法被定義、也不該被定義，任何詮釋的嘗試都將得自我嘲笑一番。處女鐘、十大原則、「歡迎回家」擁抱、荒漠默契… 從東亞遠赴沙漠、打造營區又將其燃燒殆盡的我們，為的是追尋什麼？為何不計一切來到這個家園，又如何重返那個「預設值世界」裡的家園？究竟為了逃避什麼、或告別什麼？能否撐過一切，在愛過與恨過的家園之間生存？我們於此埋下一顆時光膠囊。