French CORE Team

stephanieStéphanie Pecoste (Project Lead)
A civil engineer and city planner, Stéphanie has overseen several large scale projects as part of her professional life. After being involved with the French Burner community for some years and finally attending Burning Man in 2010 (Metropolis, what a fit for a planning professional!) she made a promise to herself that she would be back to the playa again bringing a large scale project, and with Stairway To Heaven she certainly kept up to her promise!


dubSylvain Dubail aka Dub (Project Lead)
Part of the French Burners organization since a few years, Dub also took part to the incredible challenge that has been the Temple of Transition at Burning Man 2011, for which he participated to the Temple Burn Crew. Since last year the French proposal to the Circle of Regional Effigies didn’t make it to the final selection operated by Burning Man, he decided that this year he would have done all it could to make it happen, so he jumped at the new project as Project Lead. And here we are, folks! Ready to bring a bit of French culture to the playa!

ludaleLudovic Jonard aka Ludale (Stairway to Heaven Concept)
Burner since 2010. Grantee 2011 from Black Rock Art Foundation with the installation Mobule. BRC is the perfect place to design effigies as an architectural skeleton to combine volumes, enlightments, videos, music and movements, especially to create an interactivity with the public. I aim to find a resonance between my constructions and the public to express a global mood. Designer of the Videodrone (balloon airship enlighted to project movies in the sky), Aerolabe (another video airship), and co-founder of the Sky Art Movement.

burningmaxMassimo Burgio aka Burningmax (Communication Co-Lead, Fire Co-Lead)
Burner since 2003, involved since then in a number of Burning Man projects such as playa installations (Beyond Fear, 2003 – Flaming Lotus Girls’ Serpent Mother, 2005), theme camps (Hammock Hangout, Quixote Cabaret, The Perfect World, Minitropolis, Rising Arms), and has been part of the Temple of Transition building Crew in 2011, while also leading the social media team for the Temple Crew. Signed up for 2013 with both BRC Rangers and DPW. Part of the Nowhere regional event since 2007, he officially joined the Nowhere organization team in 2010 and is now co-leading Local Purchasing for the whole Nowhere, as well as the organization of The Garden, the largest sound system theme camp at Nowhere. Techno DJ by passion, Burningmax is a favorite headliner at all European decompressions, burners events and gathering since 2009.

lauraLaura Szymanski (LNT and Playa Protection Lead)
I’ve been going to Burning Man since 2008, and felt in love with the playa the moment I arrived. I’m an active member of the NoseFish theme camp, where I was LNT and Recycling lead. Our camp has been awarded LNT camp of the day multiple times and we are known for good LNT practices. I also was with the crew of the Ein Hammer project in 2010, serving piping hot strudel and cool whipped cream to those waiting for their turn at the hammer. I attended Nowhere for the first time in 2012, and have been active in the regional burner communities in all the places I have lived. I was living in France when the opportunity arose to take part in the French CORE Project, and have been a part of the team since the very beginning. I’m so excited to see this project become a reality! I’m now back to the US, where I serve as French CORE ambassador on this side of the Atlantic.

michelMichel Grazda (Sound and Light Lead)
Michel is our expert in light and sound animation; he is the co-president of the “Art in Action” collective since 2011 and member of the French Burners group. As an artist, he participated to many interactive sound projects including “SeeUSeeMe”, presented at Paris Burning Night in 2011. Michel, as “electronic musician”, is also a sound designer for website and video production and participated between 2005 and 2009 to the design of the stereoscopic show “Cyber Circus” with Francois Wertheimer, as CG modeler/animator and for the composition of the sound environment. He also realized the sound environment for the interactive man/machine installation “ULight USound” presented at the Nowhere regional festival in 2011, as well ad to other festivals such as “Future en Seine” (Paris) and Art and Sound” (Brussels), and also contributed to the Nowhere 2012 project “Flowers 2.0”, designed by Pierre Esteve.

alexandreAlexandre Hemery (Communications Co-Lead)
I am a virgin burner, but I’ve known about Burning Man for the last ten years. My brother Benoït decided to go to the playa this year, so I jumped at the chance to go with him. As soon as we discovered the French CORE project we both decided that it would have been the best and more exciting way to approach Burning Man, and a very intense experience to live. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be totally hooked with Black Rock City and also that being involved in a human and artistic project of this scale is something that I will never forget!

benoitBenoït Hemery (Communication Team)
I’m a virgin burner from Picardie but I live in Paris since eleven years. I discovered Burning Man more than ten years ago, I know the principles of BM and I thought they pretty much match my vision and way of life. My Burning Man ticket says “No spectator” and when I heard about a French project on the playa, my heart and my brain said “Yes! Good idea!”. I want to share the amazing and unique experience of this trip to the playa and of the entire CORE project with both my girlfriend Pauline and my brother Alexandre., both members of the French CORE crew. See you in the dust!

paulinePauline Dahyot (Communication Team)
I’m a virgin burner from Bretagne, living in Paris since 10 years, working as a graphic designer. Do you like our French CORE logo? I did it, starting from a collective input that came from the rest of the Crew. I discover Burning Man thanks to my boyfriend Benoït. He’s been talking about this marvelous festival in the desert for ages, so this year we decided to try our luck getting the tickets, and we got them! I think it’s a beautiful thing that we are both involved with the French CORE project, Burning Man will be a wonderful experience to live and I can’t wait to be on the playa!

cecileCécile Ravaux (Communications Team)
I’m from Lille and I live in Paris since 3 years. I met the French Burners community upon my arrival and I immediately had a crush on the community. My dream is now is to participate to Burning Man with the French Core team, to share an amazing and unique experience through our art installation and desert building mission! I’ll be a virgin on the playa this year but I’ve been getting ready for it for an entire year!


laurentLaurent Garcia aka Synapse (Burn Team)
Part of the French Burners organization team, I have been part of the crew of 4 Burning Nights, and today I’m active with the organization of the forthcoming French Burning Weekend 2013 (September 2013). I’m also the organizer of Burn Your Sunday (the Paris Burning Night 2012 afterparty), and active participant to other burners events such as Bric-à-Brac Circus and Gagarin Night. I have been to Burning Man only once in 2011, but I’ll be back this year to the playa. In the mean time, I made sure not to miss key local regional burn events such as Nowhere and Barcelona Burning Bash (Spain), and Snowhere (Switzerland). I love light decoration and light design with El-wire and LEDs, to the point that I’m one of the co-founders of Dream-neon.com, the French shop of all things blinking. I love people, green energy projects, and the interconnection of mind and ideas; this is why I joined the French CORE team!

iguaIguacel Gamboa Velilla aka Igua (Build + Burn Team)
I´m Igua, a Spanish woman who just landed on the Burner community. Nowhere 2012 was my first Burner event but I was so enthusiastic with the whole experience that I jumped in with both feet. A few months later, I find myself co-leading the whole Local Purchasing area and being part of the team of the Temple of Dissolution for Nowhere 2013. I just can´t help loving and working for the community!! So, when the chance to help the French CORE showed up, I didn’t think it twice. I´m so proud and excited to be part of the team that I can´t wait to be on the playa. By the way, I´m a virgin. It doesn’t hurt, right?