Abstract: Vacuum poses a challenge to imagination. Imagination seems expendable when everything is obvious and out in the open. More oft en than not, the imagined tends to be more terrifying than the real. The fear of an imaginary monster, the fear of fear itself – these are familiar inhabitants of not just a child's imagination. However, it is a diff erentkind of fear and a different kind of imagination that this chapter is going to be about; it will also tackle an entirely diff erentkind of vacuum. My understanding of the ancient horror vacui – nature abhors a concept of vacuum – refers to such a state of mind which compels one to fill that empty space with entities – as a way of preserving them from obliteration. It is, ultimately, about the role of memory and its key actor, imagination – for is not the latter indispensable for the existence of the former?

The goal of this chapter was to examine the phenomenon of such imagination, which, born out of the commitment of a handful of passionate individuals, may attain a powerful moral dimension – so powerful in fact, that it is capable of permanently affecting the social environment of the town in which it happens and as a result change its populace's perception of their familiar urban space forever. My main research interest has lain in studying the emotional and intellectual mechanisms of the process, in establishing what motivates some people to become dedicated to the idea of reinstating the memory of once vibrant, but today nonexistent local minority communities. To that purpose I relied on qualitative methodology (interviews, participant observation, and text analysis) which has enabled me to construct the ethnography of my subject of study, the Żyznowski Publishing House.

Key words: imagination in management, the experience of space and place, horror vacui, Jewish studies

Introduction

Vacuum poses a challenge to imagination. Imagination seems expendable when everything is obvious and out in the open. Since childhood, we have been extracting shapes out of the darkness, illuminating them with our imagination.