Interview: Dancing Vortex
Luca Curci talks with Dancing Vortex, winner of PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE MONTH – MARCH 2022.

Why the vortex, and why dancing? … Our capacity to think, reflect and analyze is a vast space of freedom, one that is complex and vulnerable, constantly changing, in perpetual transformation. In most western democracies, we have the chance to be able to express and share these thoughts and opinions through language and writing, but also through artistic creation, opening up almost unlimited fields of expression. Life has become an obstacle race, a marathon… Hardly out of the womb, we find ourselves condemned to a vast headlong rush – we are caught up in a relentless countdown – a whirlwind of events that forces us to adapt, constantly and seamlessly. Through the energy and spatialization of my Vortices, I want everyone to be able to see a representation of their own journey, an opportunity to meditate on their dance of life, going beyond the solely physical. These images, like cosmic mandalas, are invitations to a metaphysical reflection on our inability to govern all facets of our lives, as the forces of nature that surround and govern us are beyond our control, and surpass us to such a degree. Our short time on earth is full of experiences, encounters, emotions, and trials. These Dancing Vortex® images are like beacons reminding us that during our journey, nothing is fixed or definitive. Although we think or live in the present moment, this moment is already over by the time when we become aware of it, giving way to a new piece of life just as fleeting, transitory, and uncontrollable. Some think that they are able to anticipate, control, and capitalize on their existence to the last breath, but they are deluded and deprive themselves of the exhilarating sense of vertigo that is provided by the perpetual adaptation to the unpredictable and ceaseless movements of life. By ‘choreographing’ my Dancing Vortex, I offer a contemplative dive into the unknown and the impermanent, an encounter with universal forces, whose outcome will be perhaps a surprising inner voyage of discovery, punctuated by some distant echoes of a now-forgotten original Big Bang.

Luca Curci – What is art for you?
Dancing Vortex – Particularly in these difficult times for the world, I will be able to take up Nietzsche’s sentence: “Art is what we have so as not to die of the truth”. More generally, art is a universal link that binds people together and connects them with their history. What remains of past civilizations as evidence of their existence: the artworks they produced. Everyday art is a field of expression that knows no limits in its form. It transcends the present, the real, reveals it, the sublime, and the beyond.

LC – What are you currently working on?
DV – More than ever, I feel that people need to get away, even briefly, from a daily life that is becoming more and more hostile, from concerns that are legitimate but which are harmful see toxic to their physical and mental health. More than ever, I see my little cosmic delusions as so many windows onto a fantasized and benevolent world and universe, offering a space of freedom conducive to a beneficial escape.

LC – What’s your background?
DV – I come from the music world. I am a pianist and opera singer in the company of the Opera National de Paris. I started in the world of images by studying graphic design, and architecture. I also took pictures of shows and portraits of artists for the press. My work as an “artistic” photographer really started ten years ago.

LC – What experience has most influenced your work?
DV – My “Dancing Vortex” was born in Japan. It was during a trip to this fascinating country that I felt a cultural and spiritual shock forcing me to transcribe this flow of emotions into images. The symbolism of the “Hinomaru” (the Japanese flag representing the sun), as well as the “Enso”, symbolizes the cosmos, the completion, the beginning and the end of everything, and the transfiguration. The feeling that the representation of a circle could be a symbol and a messenger of universal truths. I wanted, while keeping the original shape of the circle, to give a personal interpretation of these two references where we would find all these messages originally conveyed, reviewed, and reinterpreted with my sensitivity. I chose to set this circle in motion, to make it “dance” in order to give it even more life and freedom in its space.

LC – What is the role of the artist in society? And contemporary art?
DV – The artist has definitively (and fortunately) lost the role of entertainer that we recognized in past centuries. It is today a witness and a major player in our societies. His works are as many aesthetic and historical testimonies for future generations. Contemporary art contributes to the development and structuring of our societies. It breathes energy, and guidelines, which contribute to the smooth running and balance of the world. It is an escape from television screens that offer us a truncated, formatted, censored vision of the world. Contemporary art widens the field of possibilities, it develops free thought and free will.

LC – Where do you find your inspiration?
DV – The inspiration is constantly renewed by all the emotions that I can feel during the day. It can come from an encounter, from music, from a landscape, from the shape of a cloud, from the song of a bird, from the color of a flower, from a raging ocean. Being of a contemplative nature, my inspiration comes mainly from nature. Then, I transpose this inspiration into an unlimited space, a reinterpreted cosmos where everyone can let their mind wander.

LC – What is the most difficult part of creating your works?
DV – It is quite difficult to find the right balance between the energy and the serenity that I want to give to my photos. I don’t always succeed and many projects remain unfinished. But when that balance is finally found, the satisfaction and relief are immense. I am rather a perfectionist, which can force me to spend several days on an image before finding it satisfactory…