39: Tao Ruspoli on psychedelics, consensual non-monogamy, community & radical living

We are delighted to host a dear friend, Tao Ruspoli, on this episode of the Mangu.tv podcast series. 

Tao is a filmmaker, photographer, musician and co-founder of the Bombay Beach Biennale an experiment in integrating art, philosophy, performance and community building. In 2001 Tao transformed an old school bus into a mobile digital video studio and spent several years living and travelling in the bus making short films and documentaries with an eclectic collective of fellow travellers. He then made the feature films, Fix (2008), and Being in the World (2010), both with Mangusta productions. After divorcing in 2011 which led to his last film, Monogamish (2014), Tao made his way to the desert discovering a love for both the high desert near Joshua Tree and the low desert in Bombay beach. In Bombay beach, he has gathered a community of artists who are using their insight and creativity to transform a town that was most often described as ‘post-apocalyptic’. The New York Times called The Bombay Beach Biennale ‘the anti-burning man’ in so far as their goal is pretty much to leave a trace. 

Tao joins Giancarlo for a well-overdue catch-up. The conversation follows psychedelics, consensual non-monogamy, community & radical living. Tao shares his thoughts on authentic living, his love for eccentric people and places, and how that led to the co-founding of The Bombay Beach Biennale. Their vision at Bombay beach is to ‘privilege art as a meaningful tool for community building, social change and political activism’.