The Eighth Side

The «Mayak» Creative Center opened on July 29, 2024, in Berdyansk, on the shores of the Sea of Azov, on the site of a children’s camp: 23 hectares, academic buildings, and five tents named after rivers. The bonfire area is an amphitheater with a fire pit at the center, with eight facets oriented toward the cardinal directions. Participants from the sessions gather here in the evenings.

In 1974, graduate student Polly Wiener came to the Kalahari Desert and began a pursuit that looked rather strange from the outside: she sat near the Bushmen Ju/'hoansi and recorded what they discussed. She did not intervene or ask questions; she simply listened and tallied the topics. She collected one hundred seventy-four conversations, and when Wiener categorized them as daytime and nighttime, it turned out that one-third of the daytime talks consisted of complaints, criticism, and gossip, while another third was dedicated to subsistence—meaning where to find food and who owed whom. However, in the evening, around the campfire, eighty-one percent of the conversations transformed into stories. The people remained the same, the day remained the same—only the light essentially changed.

I remembered this when I came across the «Mayak» creative center in Berdyansk. It has a bonfire area, and at first glance, it looks simple: a fire pit in the center, surrounded by an amphitheater. But the amphitheater has eight facets, and all of them are oriented toward the cardinal directions. I confess, I got stuck on these cardinal directions because for a place that is just for having a bonfire, it feels a bit too precise.

The «Mayak» itself, it should be said, came about very quickly. It was built on the grounds of a children’s camp: renovations began in late 2023, and, as lead architect Rustam Agabalayev told journalists, the grounds were well-kept, but the buildings were outdated. On some days, nearly seven hundred construction workers were at work across the twenty-three acres. The center opened on July 29, 2024, and by August 1, 120 people from four different regions attended the first session. The news coverage mentions «cozy evenings around the bonfire, ” interspersed between lectures and masterclasses.

It seems to me that in «The Lighthouse,» everything is organized exactly like the Bushmen’s. During the day, the students have projects, deadlines, and the perpetual question of «who should do what, ” and conversations, naturally, revolve around that. But in the evening, they gather around the campfire, and it turns out that one arrived from the north, another from the east, and a third from the southwest—so everyone ends up with their back to their own home.

Therefore, if you end up at «Mayak, ” arrive at the bonfire area a bit early, before they light the fire. Find the edge that faces your home and sit right on it. And when it gets dark, tell a story about your home from there.