Burn Ceremony
Alexander Girav

Burn Ceremony is an observation of [redacted]’s largest oil refinery, processing 440,000 barrels of crude oil a day. By night, the complex becomes a heaving edifice of flame and fog. We witness its operation from afar as the inferno slowly engulfs the frame, accompanied by an original hypnotic soundscape by UK club experimentalist Loraine James.

This film offers a direct visual illustration of the intensive processes that are driving global warming: routine flaring of natural gas at oil operations is a major, ongoing source of CO₂, methane and black carbon – potent contributors to warming and air pollution. Girav’s film is a haunting spectacle, transforming industrial activity into a visual metaphor for the environmental costs of fossil fuel consumption. Through this lens, the refinery becomes both a literal and symbolic site of ecological transformation.