One of our favourite couples Arsen and Rena have left Koh Phangan (left physically but their hearts will always remain).
They have gone on an adventure to Bali for now but will be back when the time is right.
We've seen their love blossom but also their unique fire performance as well, so we catch up with Arsen to find out more about their new project 'Arcama' and to reminisce on his time on Koh Phangan...
What made you create your own fire project?
For many years I was performing by myself, it worked very well for me. I was not responsible for anyone but myself and no one was annoying or stressing me out before and after the show. Performers, who work in teams will understand what I’m talking about and will relate. Working in a team with other creative individuals is hard work and take a lot of effort. Every artist has their own way of doing things, its own flow and vibe, especially women artists (laughing).
But ever since Rena appeared in my life as Arsen and as an artist, I changed my mind. If you want to grow as a performer and take your career to the next level you have to create something more than just a good solo show. You have to take this responsibility not only for yourself, but to be willing to collaborate with others and have ambition for expansion.
In the end, more fire and more performers look even better on stage. That’s why I ordered a lot of new original fire equipment, costumes and founded project ‘Arcama’. Right now there is only two of us, but we can equip more artists and put together the whole fire theatre.
There are challenges with traveling with all that equipment and getting through the customs, but this never stopped me. I like the challenge and am proud that I present anytime anywhere in the world and put a tremendous show. Even at the airport customs (laughing). Officers are always curious about what I keep in my huge bags.
Another important mission is a development of fire show culture. When I came to Phangan for the first time I saw mostly local poi and staff spinners. Thai style fire show. By the way, I’m big fan of this style and I have a lot of respect for the thai spinners. They do incredible things. Thai performers can spin for many hours on the beach, barefoot with tremendous speed, every day. Real spinning machines! Fire terminators! (laughing). But I decided to present another fire show style, focusing on artistry, original looking, extraordinary fire toys, like dragon stuff, comet rope dart (long rope with big fire ball), adding some magic. People were impressed to see something new. Many fire colleagues ordered the same tools. I was not unique anymore but the Phangan fire show became much more various. I’m sure that this season you will see other performers using fire wings, fire umbrellas and other unique stuff that we presented before. Competition always makes the quality better. It’s a rule of market.
How much do you love Koh Phangan?
I can seriously say that my love for Koh Phangan can be only be compared to the love for my parents. My mother and father gave me my physical birth and Phangan gave my spiritual birth. Me before Phangan and me after Phangan – is two different people.
Only there I was able to completely change my way of thinking and even my appearance. It seemed like some magic force brought me from another continent there, and I’m so glad that it happened to me. I like my current life so much. Wherever I am – Phangan is always in my heart.
So why did you decide to leave?
It was a very difficult decision. I spend there more than one year and was planning to stay longer. Just in a few days before applying for a new visa I suddenly realised a very important thing. No matter how good of a performer you are, as the time goes by you get bored and lose the interest. You find yourself hard to get excited and thrilled about anything anymore. No matter how good you have it now, you will always want more. You will always feel the need to seek the unknown and move forward, exploring other places and touring the world in hopes to find new excitement and happiness.
Change places, change audience. If you don’t catch the right moment to leave, epic fail is waiting for you. This is one of my biggest professional fears and I planned for the future to avoid situations like that.
I have a great example that many could understand. 7/11 stores sell very delicious cream éclairs and for some time I was obsessed with it! I loved them so much and would eat a pack a day for a few month in a row. One day I bought my next portion and felt a sickness. They were so ugly to me. How is it possible? Just yesterday they were so yummy?! Truth is that they still are yummy, nothing changed about them, the only thing that has changed is my appetite for them. I found them no longer so delicious and needed a break, so I could start appreciating the taste again.
Phangan made me stronger, gave lots of energy, skills and knowledge. I have to use it worldwide. It will be my best tribute to this island. Whenever I’m back there I feel lots of amazing emotions. I feel how much I missed Phangan and people who live there. I feel how much they missed me and want to see my show again. I can already see what I will be doing in the future when I return. You can only appreciate the place and have those feeling when you have been gone for a while. This is indispensable price.
How is the fire performing going on in Bali?
At the end of May me and Rena were invited to perform at Remember festival – a big annual Psytrance OpenAir in Bali. We were lucky because we just arrived and had no idea about this festival.
And it was fantastic – three days in a tent camp, deep in the north of island. Amazing nature, cool dj’s, lovely people. Even strong rain on the last day didn’t ruin our mood. We did two big performances and received good feedback. We got a lot of propositions for creative partnership from people we met there – designers, djs, event managers. As a result of our networking collaboration with various artists we will be featured at the series of clothing and jewelry look books, have our own unique Dj set for our shows and a few music videos featuring us.
After this we performed at various private parties with a great audience and amazing ambiance, it was a lot of fun. Also, while being in Ubud we met wonderful and very talented performer from California named Forest Schrodt, with over 20 years of experience.
He established one of the biggest training camps for dancers and fire spinners called Bali Flow Temple. Most of our free time we spend at his camp practicing our new tricks and Forest is helping us with the choreography. I would strongly recommend this place for all of my fire brothers whenever they are in Ubud. Also, once a week they host nice and soul warming parties for friends and visitors, where you can spin surrounded by most talented artists.
Next biggest event we are going to perform at is Dance for Peace Festival 2016 on Gili Island, small Island near Bali. It’s going to be a four day long psy trance dance located on the beautiful beach, a place that is known as paradise.
Overall I could say that rhythm of life on Bali is totally different from KPG lifestyle. Bali is working on Island time, no one is in the hurry, everyone is chill and relaxed and you feel like the time has stopped. Bali is attracting more of a spiritual type of people, it’s a paradise for yogis, healers, painters and everyone who lives In ZEN motion. It’s like a day and night with KPG and it's crazy parties and “go hard or go home” moto. Bali’s sober night life is over by 10:00 pm, when most of restaurants are closed and everything turns into ghost town. Usually it takes up to a year to plan for a big festival and its well-planned ahead of the time, and small local parties are getting rescheduled every other week.
So to all of my artist colleagues I’m warning you don’t expect much on the performance side.This is a great place to have creative outbursts and get inspired for the new shows. You can always take a break from practicing and go explore the beautiful Neverlands of the island: rafting, climbing volcano, visiting local temples or walking through jungle and rice fields. Believe it or not, you can even get a blessing from a local Manku (priest) as a protection from fire burns and drunk audience (laughing).
What’s the idea behind your performance?
You can sense the idea from our name and our logo. Our name is based on the Vedic word ‘kama’ meaning ‘Love’. I’m sure you have noticed how much we love each other, so everything we create is made in love and harmony.
Love is a huge power allowing you to make the impossible possible and move the mountains for one another. We live in the atmosphere of love and we like to share it with others.
In our new show we are going to use this energy directly by using an element of fire. As we know fire transforms energies and substances into another form. Our new show will be representing a transformation of our energy of Love into healing energy for the audience that is fully engaged. I would like to specify that it differs from the audience who aren’t as present. That’s why our new project will be called ‘Spiritual Fire Show’.
Our logo representing the whole strategy of our work graphically. A million thanks to my close friend and one of the most talented designers Maxim Mart for creating this logo. He felt our concept and idea throughout.
Remind us of how you and Rena met...
Once upon a time there was a wonderful ethnic festival in Ukraine where I was performing. It was a typical night and nothing promising was flying in the air. Until I glanced at this girl sitting by the fire and mysteriously staring at my flames.
I was performing on stage and all of a sudden I saw her eyes through the crowd. It was a love from the first sight. After the performance I went to talk to her, but there was barely any conversation between us two. We were just sitting there staring at each other and laughing.
Unfortunately, after this night we never saw each other again and had to communicate virtually for the next couple of years. Next time we met was very sudden and unplanned, but I think it was a destiny. I just accidently ended up sharing the same cab with her.
We both felt it and from that moment on we knew this was a destiny we couldn’t escape from. I had a ticket to Thailand leaving in few days and Rena was packing to Europe. I told her she has to cancel her trip to Europe and come with me to Thailand, after which I just bought her a ticket.
This is how we appeared on Phangan last September. Many of you became witnesses of what happened after that. Big love that happened between us gave the spark to our new artistic development.
When are you back on Koh Phangan?
We have big plans for the coming year and a very tight schedule. At the end of our seasonal tour we will definitely try to make some time to come back to Phangan. Probably it's going to happen sometime next year.
We really miss everyone and are hesitantly waiting for this day to come. I can already picture myself eating cheap noodle soup for 20 bat at the boat, leaving Donsak pier. I love it’s awful taste! LOL
Which are your favorite parties on Koh Phangan?
I won’t try to be a smart ass and definitely will go for Jungle Experience as number one for me! This is one of the best, most colorful and massive parties of the island. This is the place where all of my best friends get together. This is the place where I go wild, it never gets boring.
Just recently I got into psy trance music and started visiting more often places like Shiva Moon and Ban Sabai.
When I’m thinking about dynamic rhythms of Jo Moontribe my legs just start impulsively jumping left and right. It was a huge pleasure to be able to perform there and just having a blast!
I also quite enjoyed great ambience and party at Green Gallery and Pyramid Yoga. This place has a completely different vibe with its own live music, dances and tea ceremonies. This was also pretty cool. These sort of parties are very popular in Bali. I meet a lot of people from here that remind me of that place.
And last but not least, one of my favorite places where I didn’t perform but simply danced my ass off was small bars far away from people’s eyes near the eastern coast. I can still hear the echo of insane Techno from Peter G, David Chong, Benoit Clerc and other great djs ringing in my ears. Next time I’m thinking to stay at Haad Tien for few weeks. This place is perfect for meditations.
It was great to catch up Arsen, we wish you both every success and will see you on your return!
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