From Black Cloud to a New Message

In August 2025, the Ukrainian art project Black Cloud, created for Burning Man, was meant to serve as a stark warning to the world about the looming danger of global war. The massive installation — 30 meters long, 15 meters high, and weighing 8 tons — evoked the invisible yet ever-present threat hanging over humanity.

But on the very first day of the festival, August 24 — Ukraine’s Independence Day — a sudden hurricane ripped through Black Rock City. Within minutes, the storm tore the artwork apart. Part of the camp was destroyed, and DJ Anatoly Tapolsky even broke his leg. It could have ended there, with tragedy and loss.

Yet the Ukrainian team refused to surrender.

A New Meaning: No Fate

From the wreckage of Black Cloud, and with the help of kind people who offered materials and support, the artists created a new piece — the phrase No Fate (a shortened version of “There's no fate but what we make“).

The phrase, shouted by Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 as a warning to humanity, had accompanied the team from the very start. In the context of Ukraine’s war, it carries two powerful layers of meaning:

• A warning to the world: if Western nations do not act decisively in the arms race and military technology, war may soon come knocking on their own doors.
• Faith in human agency: we always have the power and responsibility to shape our own destiny — even when everything seems lost.

As the team put it: “The question isn’t how many times you fall, but how many times you rise and what lessons you take with you.”

Burning Man as a Metaphor for Life

Beside the glowing No Fate sign, Tapolsky performed one of his strongest DJ sets of the festival, his crutches lying nearby — a raw symbol of resilience, of transforming pain into creativity.

In that moment, the philosophy of Burning Man came alive: life, like the desert festival, is not about comfort, but about trials, community, and the ability to rebuild from ruins.

Partners and Support

The project was realized without a single hryvnia of state funding, but with crucial support from the Ukrainian Institute, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications. Backing also came from the Black Rock City Honoraria Program, Nova Ukraine, the International Renaissance Foundation, private patrons, and a number of Ukrainian companies.

“No fate but what we make” is no longer just a line from a film. At Burning Man 2025, it became Ukraine’s artistic creed: from pain and loss is born strength, and from the ruins of a Black Cloud rises a new message — one of resilience, agency, and hope.