The ritual of the whirling dervishes represents a profound intersection of movement, identity, and spirituality. Through the repetitive and continuous whirling, the dervish enters a state of transcendence, where the body becomes a vessel for divine affection. This act, though seemingly excessive, is a purposeful journey towards detachment from the self, allowing the individual to merge with a greater whole.

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In their symbolic attire, black robes shedding worldly concerns and white skirts embodying purity, the dervishes engage in an act of

anonymity yet this is not a suppression of identity, but rather a dissolution of it, creating space for a collective spiritual experience.

Within this framework, the whirling dervish ritual forms a unique perspective on carnivals that mirrors the contradictions present in the concept: restraint as a form of pleasure, anonymity by unmasking, and excessiveness leading to a moment of enlightenment.

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In Eternal Whirl, these symbolic garments and movements are brought into the artwork to evoke the ritual’s essence. The installation consists of a

large circular fabric suspended from its center. At rest, the fabric lays still on the ground, its black surface visible, representing the ego’s weight and

earthly pleasures. As the fabric begins to ascend, slowly swirling, the white interior fabric emerges, unfurling with the motion. At its peak, four

meters high and spinning at the speed of the dervishes, it reveals only the white embodying the state of spiritual transcendence. After swirling continuously for some time, it slows down and descends until it reaches the floor, hiding the white and showing again the black, repeating the same motion over and over again hence begins the eternal whirl of the soul

between two realms.

 

By blending the contrast of black and white, stillness and motion, earthly and divine, the installation invites viewers to reflect on the universal tensions between indulgence and restraint, anchoring the layered

complexities of Carnival within the meditative ritual of Sema.