Camp / Cave / Water – Opening Reception

Camp / Cave / Water
Ritual, retreat, renewal, and (im)permanence in the urban landscape
By Mike Fleisch, Sita Magnuson, and the 4th Space Collective

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What marks do we leave in space? How do our individual and collective experiences become our stories and histories? How do we make sense and build relationships through the intended and unintended consequences of our actions and interactions?

Human beings have sought places for ritual, refuge, and mutual learning since the beginning of time. We gather to learn with, and from, others within formal and informal settings; we retreat to integrate our acquired knowledge. The urban landscape offers us a multitude of opportunities to make sense of our surroundings and leave (im)permanent marks on human-made and natural ecosystems.

Informed by David Thornburg’s three archetypal learning spaces (Campfires, Caves, and Watering Holes), this installation explores contained and open physical spaces embedded in the urban landscape as a collective weaving of stories, histories, and (in)visible relationships to space and community.

In the space between what we can and cannot see, we explore the tension between intentional and unintentional, permanent and impermanent, private and public, individual and collective—the liminal spaces where learning, growing, and relating happen.

Enter. Gather. Retreat. Share.