Standing on the desert floor at Burning Man, looking not just up at a blue sky but also down to see the same sky reflected beneath your feet, is a meditative experience Ukrainian lighting designer Mykola Kabluka has imagined for his latest installation, The Point of Unity. Premiering at Burning Man 2025, which will be held in Black Rock City, Nevada, from August 24 to September 1, The Point of Unity is a large-scale interactive light sculpture that explores a connection between heaven and earth, humans and nature, the present and the future.
Key design features include:
- Mirrored Sky Portal: A circular mirrored floor and reflective panels create the illusion of the sky around the viewer, making you feel suspended between earth and heaven.
- Shimmering Light Effects: By day, sunlight and blue sky are captured in the reflections; by night, hundreds of tiny points of light mimic stars, enveloping visitors in a personal cosmos of shimmering lights.
- Sound and Silence: Subtle soundscapes (and the strategic use of silence) add an auditory layer to the experience, gently encouraging introspection as visitors move through the space.
- Interactive Surfaces: The installation invites touch; guests can place their hands on the cool, polished walls and watch their figures merge with light and shadow, making each person an integral part of the artwork’s ever-changing reflection.
All of these elements work in concert to heighten the sense of unity and dissolve boundaries. The design utilizes the natural environment as a canvas, incorporating the wide-open sky, the raw desert, and even ambient sounds into the installation’s material. By leveraging optical illusion and minimalist design, The Point of Unity achieves a dramatic effect with surprisingly simple means.
Daylight Reflection, Nighttime Transformation
As The Point of Unity operates around the clock, its character changes dramatically from day to night. In the daylight, the vast mirror surfaces capture the bright sky, drifting clouds, and golden sun, creating a dazzling blue oasis in the middle of the dusty playa. The desert floor itself seems to open up into a portal of sky, reinforcing the unity between above and below. As the sun moves across the sky, the reflections shift and morph, giving the installation a dynamic life even in stillness.
When night falls, the experience becomes even more otherworldly. Under the dark vault of Black Rock Desert’s night (nearly free of light pollution), the mirrored floor reflects the Milky Way and countless stars, so that visitors find themselves standing in a 360-degree field of starlight. Kabluka describes this as reaching a point “where you can touch the stars”, and indeed, one can imagine the sensation of being enveloped by the universe. Many onlookers may feel literally star-struck, as if the boundary between earth and cosmos has vanished. Nighttime also brings a hush: the installation opens up “a space for silence, awareness, and interaction“, a tranquil counterpoint to the music and energy in other corners of Burning Man. In this quiet, illuminated sanctuary, participants can reflect (both literally and metaphorically) on their place in the universe.
Immersive Multi-Sensory Experience
Crucially, The Point of Unity is meant to be experienced from within, not just observed from outside. Kabluka designed it as an immersive, multi-sensory journey. Visitors are encouraged to walk inside and become part of the art, to feel the smooth mirrored floor underfoot and the curved walls at their fingertips, to listen to the gentle hush or ambient sounds reverberating in the space, and to gaze at the ever-changing light and reflections around them. The installation engages the senses of sight, touch, and hearing; as the artist notes, guests perceive it “through sight, sound, and touch, unlocking new dimensions of presence.”
Every angle offers a new perspective: a slight shift in position might reveal a flash of sunlight or a constellation that wasn’t visible a moment before. The interplay of reflection and reality can even induce a subtle disorientation, a reminder to be fully present in the here and now. This multi-sensory approach amplifies the piece’s meditative quality. Rather than overwhelming the senses, The Point of Unity gently awakens them. The result is what Kabluka calls a “multidimensional experience of silence and awareness,” inviting participants to slow down and reconnect with themselves.
Light as Art and Metaphor
For Kabluka, light is a language of art and a symbol of resilience. The Point of Unity embodies the idea that even the immaterial can take shape when guided by vision and creativity. In a poetic sense, the installation represents “the intangible becoming tangible, as light descending from above takes shape on the earth“. This is an allegory of transformation: just as the artwork unites heaven and earth in a single visual plane, it suggests that bridging divides and sparking change in the world begins by finding unity and light within ourselves. The sacred moment when a beam of light touches the ground, with you standing inside it, becomes a powerful metaphor for personal insight and global change.
It’s also significant that this light and unity are coming from Ukraine. Amid the darkness of war, Ukrainian artists like Kabluka continue to create, dream, work, and speak to the world in the language of art and light. The Point of Unity was conceived during trying times, which makes its message all the more poignant. “It’s not only a great honor but also a responsibility to represent Ukraine among leading global artists,” Kabluka says, noting that this opportunity is proof that Ukrainian art “has weight, a voice, and a future”. Indeed, by bringing this installation to an international stage like Burning Man, Kabluka is sharing a piece of Ukraine’s creative spirit and optimism with the world. The installation reminds us that everything begins with a person, with the light inside each of us. In inviting people to step literally into the light, The Point of Unity becomes a sublime metaphor for hope and wholeness.
