Burning Man and Decommodification: The Sotheby’s Auction Edition

Last week, Burning Man launched an auction with Sotheby’s called Boundless Space: The Possibilities of Burning Man. First and foremost, the auction is an effort to raise funds for the organization, which is unsurprisingly facing financial challenges after cancelling its flagship event two years in a row. It features works by artists both in and outside of the Burning Man community, and even has a special focus on BIPOC artists.

Some burners are pissed. Why? Because it runs counter to one of Burning Man’s ten principles — decommodification. The principle is stated for the world to absorb as follows:

Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Selling Burning Man art to generate revenue, the logic holds, is a violation of one of the principles the organization holds most dear. Arguably it is a violation in the most profound way — it’s commodifying Burning Man itself, not just allowing some form of commodification within the confines of the organization and its work. Can we reconcile the…