02/20/2018
The results are in! Once a year, we have the privilege of hosting one Burner Exchange candidate from Lakes of Fire in Western Michigan, USA - and this year, the successful artist who'll be joining us in the dust is Robert K Kolb, aka 'Rocket'!
Rocket will be bringing his piece 'Learn N The Burn' to 'Working Title_____', adding a thought-provoking instructional kiosk to the mix. Here's word from Danielle Doxie Kaltz over in Detroit, who's assisted with the process:
"The Burner Exchange Grant Committee is happy to officially announce Rocket AKA Robert K Kolb will be attending AfrikaBurn with his LNTB-- Learn N The Burns project.
AfrikaBurn is hosting there 12th year as a regional in South Africa and the theme is “Working Title_____” ie.. Choose your own theme!! OMG How fun is that.. Learn N The Burns project should fit right in.
A thought provoking, informational kiosk..there will be about 1001 obscure facts about the "world of BURN-" . Think of this as an Acculturation Kiosk and it will include:
People can read other perspectives, or write their own. Appreciate the art, of others, learn the weird and obscure about burns from other regions and test their knowledge of weird "Burner" facts. So many different sides, views, perspectives...all of the same vision ! Learn n the burn
For those of you not yet aware of Robert...His playa name is Rocket… here is some information on him;
He lives in Chicago has attended Lakes of Fire from 2015-2017, Reclaimation (KY) 2014-2017, Interfuse 2015, Mosaic 2015, Scorched Nuts 2015-2016, Burning down the River 2015, Paradox 2016. And has attended playa from 2011 to 2017.
In 2015 he received a regional art grant for Illinois Decompression in 2014. He has brought art projects to Reclaimation for the last 3 years. He built the Kentucky effigy 2016. He has worked with DMV on playa and has built a mutant vehicle which is fitting as he will be staying the DMV while at AfrikaBurn.
We are happy to announce and help Rocket ready for this years event. We wish to thank everyone who submitted this year.. we had really good submissions.
411 on the process:
Two teams of selection committees worked together to build a questionnaire for applicants interested in traveling to each event. Applicants are required to submit an overview, plan, and budget for the submission. Local teams chose a list of local finalists to present, and their foreign compatriots choose the winning candidate from that list.
The choice for finalists was based on (1) the merit of the project each applicant submitted, (2) the skills the applicant possesses to make that project come to life, (3) the contributions the applicant made in his or her home community, and (4) the applicant's potential to be an ambassador for his or her home event to help create more connections between the two communities.
Please note this program is not affiliated with GLEA or Lakes of Fire, this is an independent grant to get you there because we care and want you there!! GLEA does make a ticket available for the artist from AfrikaBurn to attend, and we thank them for that.
We will post soon who is coming to Lakes of Fire!!
Respectfully yours,
Danielle, Rosey, Sam, Sol, Braai and the whole crew!"
Thanks to Matt Strzelczyk for this shot from Lakes of Fire in 2014.
