Current position:

concept title:

Moving in silence_Footwear for internalization

Concept:

Maria Bika is exploring the materialization of silence in footwear, by constructing artifacts that highlight the importance of mindfulness in contemporary culture. The shoe is approached as a tool of internalization and proposes a new dimension of space. The main aim is to explore the possibilities of what footwear design could be, researching the boundaries of movement as a tool to trigger personal awareness, a concept expressed by Ensō, or the Circle of Enlightenment, which embodies one of the most defining aspects of Zen Buddhism, the “no-mind concept”. A state of no-mind is where a person is free from every thought or emotion through the total experience of the present moment. The feet here become the mediators between the body and the mind in order to reach the ultimate inner feeling of silence.