wiktoria tundys

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Moth Syndrome, 2022

This photographic series documents transient rave spaces where urban underground environments transform into sanctuaries of freedom and primal release. In these sites, participants inscribe their presence into the very fabric of the space, constructing new narratives that challenge the rigid structures of social norms. In these moments, the conventional order momentarily dissolves, allowing for a collective expression of liberty and a reawakening of communal energy. Rave environments, cloaked in darkness and mist, evolve into arenas of heightened sensory experience. Music induces a trance that quiets conventional thought and opens a portal to altered perceptions, allowing identities to dissolve and be reimagined. The series captures both the physical remnants left in moments of ecstasy and the symbolic images. Within these underground spaces, social status becomes irrelevant. They reveal the dual nature of an idealistic construct in which the dissolution of physical limits coexists with the disorientation of the spirit through psychoactive indulgence.

Rave gatherings reflect a broader cultural impulse in which contemporary man negotiates his place between the sacred and the profane in a predominantly secular world. There emerges a form of ritual that both echoes ancient ceremonies and challenges modern preconceptions, offering a space where collective ecstasy transforms the individual into part of a transcendent order. It stands as a visual offering to the ephemeral nature of ecstatic unity, where the interplay of destruction and renewal reveals a deeper, post-secular dialogue about the nature of existence.