Maria Bika

Exploring the materialisation of silence in footwear, by constructing artifacts that highlight the importance of mindfulness in contemporary culture. This is the subject of Maria’s project. The shoe is approached here as a tool of internalisation and proposes a new dimension of space. The main aim is to explore the possibilities of what footwear design could be, at the same time researching the boundaries of the movement. Feet movement here represents the way through which the mind comes into the present moment and focuses on 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.