The main assumption of this solo piece was lack of assumptions, starting point and initial idea. I followed what I was doing in the studio, and expanded the range of activities performed without fictionalising them and without looking for a subject matter. I wanted the material I was going to create to be direct evidence to my spiritual and emotional state, as well as my relation to dance. I was fascinated by the prospect of running away from the explicating and belabouring mind. Art affords it; its material and sensory sphere (as opposed to its conceptual aspect). Looking for the truth by means of analysing a practical – uninterpreted and unequivocal – activity.

Vacuum was created in Amsterdam in the spring of 2007 as Maria Stokłosa’s last work at School of New Dance Development.

Vacuum* is a framework of presence and activity, which the spectator freely fills with his own imagination and sensitivity.

* vacuum cleaner – pop. vac, a hoover;
* vacuum [pron. vak-yoom] void (“something empty, empty space”)