warmups Photographer Simon Hazell and aerial artist John Quigley (Spectral Q) capture image artist Sidney Ryan’s creation in the sand.
Ubuntu stands for peace In South Africa, festival-goers create a human sculpture of connection and hope.
Thousands gathered in the Karoo desert at this year’s Afrika Burn Festival to paint a picture of an integrated South African society. This festival offers people from around the world a chance to let go of all things that define them and discover through interactive creativity a new approach to community building. As the Ubuntu Mash Up producer, I hoped to unite the community in creating a huge symbol of Ubuntu, the underlying principle of human connection that binds us together. I was inspired by the image created by Sidney Ryan, who was present at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. Ryan saw in Mandela’s face the resolve and faith that gave him confidence that South Africa would become a shining light to the rest of the world.
We needed expert skill to organize thousands of people quickly into this image such that it would feel like a ritual of collective creation. For this, we relied on American photograph facilitator John Quigley and dance facilitators Magalie Bonneau-Marcil and Mark Dodsworth who, together with the eMzantsi
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team, created a ritual where people could internalize the Ubuntu experience and embody its teaching. The ritual started with people flowing into the framework of the image like rivers of the Ubuntu spirit. People were invited to sit, ground themselves on the desert of the Karoo, and form a massive human chain where they connected physically and exchanged ideas. Then, we mobilized an old
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As the plane approached, the whole group created a universal “Ahhhh” that symbolized the collective expression of unity. As a photographer in the plane captured the image, the facilitators empowered each participant to become a messenger of the Ubuntu philosophy. The group drew out and then
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quickly congregated into a giant ball representing the unbounded potential of a seed, which suddenly burst, spreading life into all corners of the globe and erupting the whole ritual into celebration. – by Jeremy Behrmann
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photo: Images courtesy of AVA-ONLINE
reconnaissance airplane to capture a new revolution.